


Rough Terrain

by eideann



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Adult Themes, Bad Followed by Worse, Betrayal of Trust, Canon-Typical Violence, Captivity, Episode Related, Gay Bashing, Intense Situations, Kidnapping, Letting People In, M/M, Non-Consensual Bondage, Rape Recovery, S3xE19 New Ground, Sex Tapes, Stalking, Torture, conversations in the dark, disturbing images
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-28 13:14:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 90
Words: 251,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6330655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eideann/pseuds/eideann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel suffers the brunt of the interrogation at the hands of the Bedrosians.  When SG-1 returns from the mission, early and under fire, bringing with them one of the locals, and Daniel is bundled straight to the infirmary where he's admitted for several days, rumors spread, expand and develop lives of their own before Hammond and O'Neill can scotch them.  With Daniel still recovering from his injuries, Hammond gives him and the rest of SG-1 time off together.  They return, rested and refreshed, and go back to work.</p>
<p>A stalker recognizes what he thinks is a golden opportunity to seize what he believes is his, and Daniel, if he thought Rigar was tough to recover from, soon learns that the Bedrosian was an amateur.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Daniel’s missing minutes in New Ground are certainly suggestive, as is his manner when Sam and Jack come in to join him. This is an epic tale in which Daniel learns how to let his friends help him cope with emotional difficulties just in time for a doozy to come along.
> 
> Just FYI, I tend re-use my original characters if I like them. Or even if I don’t like them, in the case of Captain Tolliver. The fact that there are some characters in this story that also appear in Dubitatio and Ardesco doesn't mean that this is related to the Eros universe, or that they were in the show and you just missed them. In fact, this is the first complete Stargate story I ever wrote, and represents the first appearance of Tony Sciaparelli and Dr. Harry Lisle, my non-Mary Sue (I hope) OCs. Thanks to my long-term beta reader Catslyn, who reads over my shoulder as I write and makes noises, both approving and disapproving, and who often suggests tweaks to dialogue and plot.

Rigar grabbed Daniel’s hair and yanked his head around. “What is that thing?” he demanded, pointing at the DHD. All Daniel could think was that it was their salvation if they could just get back to it. “What is it?” Rigar growled again, his face coming uncomfortably close to Daniel’s.

Looking into the eyes of his tormentor, Daniel tried to figure out if it would be better to tell the bastard what he wanted to know, or if it would be disastrous. If Rigar ordered it destroyed, that would end what hope they had of getting home anytime soon. He decided to continue the policy of limited honesty. “It controls the gate,” he said.

“There is no gate!” Rigar declared, placing equal stress on each of the words. “That is a lie, an Optrican fabrication.”

“I am not Optrican,” Daniel said, feeling like a broken record. “I’m an explorer from another world. We came here to learn more about your people and your world.”

Fortunately Rigar seemed to be the type of man who didn’t destroy things until he was certain they had no more use. He turned to the soldiers who had dragged Daniel out of the tent and said, “Take him into the interrogation tent.”

They hustled him inside, paying very little attention to whether or not he kept his footing at all. Rigar followed them in and said, “Don’t put him in the cage just yet.” They left him standing in the middle of the space, a few feet from the cage, and positioned themselves a few feet beyond the cage.

Daniel turned around to find their captor looming over him. He swallowed. He had to be careful. Sam and Jack were in the other tent, still caged, and Teal’c was out in the field, the only free agent they had at the moment. Hammond wouldn’t be expecting to hear from them for another thirty minutes to an hour. He wasn’t sure anymore, having lost track of time’s passage.

Rigar suddenly spoke, recapturing Daniel’s attention. “I can see why they selected you as their spokesperson,” the man said, gazing down at him. Daniel did his best to keep his expression neutral. “You’re very facile with words.” He glanced in the direction of the other tent. “The woman has learned her part almost too well, babbling off nonsensical science at a mile a minute.” Sam would love that, Daniel thought. “The other man doesn’t even try. You, on the other hand, speak very well, very persuasively. You have an earnest quality to you . . .” He paused, and Daniel wondered what he was supposed to say to that. “It might even have worked, for a time, had not Mallin’s good sense brought her to us.” Daniel looked down, but Rigar’s hand whipped out with his weapon, delivering a stinging shock to his arm. “Look at me when I’m speaking to you.”

Daniel looked up, and he knew that the disgust he felt had to be nakedly visible in his expression. It wasn’t something he wanted to show Rigar, but he couldn’t control his face anymore. He was tired, and he hurt, and he was angrier than he’d been for a while. Those torture cages were no cobbled together affair. They had to carry the wretched things around with them. Setting them up had been the work of minutes, and what that implied made Daniel’s blood run cold.

Smiling malevolently, Rigar continued as if there had been no interruption. “It’s your appearance as well,” he said. “Women would find you appealing, and men would find you nonthreatening.” Daniel swallowed. How long did he have to listen to this man’s bile? “Tell me about him,” Rigar said smoothly, as if continuing the earlier train. “Your friend in the woods.”

“I don’t have any friend in --” Daniel started, but, not unexpectedly, Rigar shocked him again. So many shocks in such a short time were having a bad effect on Daniel’s coordination. He went down to one knee, and Rigar went around behind him, grabbing him by the collar of his jacket and hauling him back to his feet. Then he yanked down on the jacket, dragging it off Daniel’s shoulders and halfway down his arms.

He turned to the guards and, stepping back from Daniel, said, “Strip him.”

It took a moment for the words to sink in. When they did, Daniel tried to fight back, but there were two of them, and his coordination was shot to hell. Using them as restraints against him, as weapons almost, they removed his jacket and his shirt, tossing them aside. Then one of them held his arms behind him while the other removed his boots, socks, pants and boxers. That left him naked as the day he was born.

Rigar nodded and the one restraining him moved away. Daniel stood still, his chin raised slightly, refusing absolutely to give in to the humiliation he felt. He had no doubt that Rigar could see it in every furious line of his body, however. “Now, tell me about your man in the woods.”

“There are only the three of us,” Daniel replied as calmly as he could.

“What sort of weapon created the wound on my dead soldier?”

“I don’t know,” Daniel said. “I don’t know how he died.” That response was rewarded with a prod in his ribs from the shock stick. It was bad enough through a couple of layers of fabric. Pressed directly to bare skin it was agonizing. Daniel clenched his teeth against the pain.

“What is that device in the ground?” Rigar demanded.

“I already told you. It controls the gate.”

“There is no gate. That is Optrican fallacy. How long have you been planning this conspiracy? That device was deeply buried in the ground.”

“We are not Optricans,” Daniel said. “I don’t know what you’re --” The shock stick hit him in the belly, cutting off his words. He kept his feet, but barely.

“Was Nyan in on it from the start, or did he and Mallin surprise you before you were ready?”

It was an unanswerable question. “We are not Optrican spies,” Daniel growled. “We are peaceful explorers from another planet --” This time, Rigar shoved the shock stick into his groin and activated it. This sent Daniel spiraling into blackness.

When he came to, he was aware of immense pain in his groin and the feel of the canvas floor of the tent. He must have made some sign that he was conscious, for he felt movement and heard Rigar’s voice speaking very close to his ear.

“Tell me what I want to know and I will stop hurting you,” he said. Daniel clenched his teeth and refused to speak. The man stood up and gave him a poke with the shock stick in his back. Daniel arched his spine at the sudden burst of agony but let out no more than the merest grunt of pain.

He didn’t look up or hear an order, but Rigar must have made some gesture, for the two guards came forward and pulled him back to his feet again, leaving him standing there, naked and trembling with reaction to repeated electrical shocks. He raised his chin, glaring at the bastard who was holding them, his fists clenched at his sides. There was no way in hell he would give Teal’c up to this monster. Not only was he a friend, not only was he the only chance any of them had of getting out of this mess, but what Rigar would do with a genuine alien Daniel didn’t even want to know.

Rigar grabbed him by the arm and yanked him over to the table where all their gear was spread out. Pulling something out of his uniform, he bound Daniel’s wrists together again, as if all too aware that something on that table could be an unrecognized weapon. He picked up one of their GDOs and held it up. “What is this?” he asked.

Not for the first time, Daniel wished he could come up with spur of the moment snappy insolence the way Jack could. “We call them Garage Door Openers,” he said. “They help us get home safely.” Let the bastard puzzle that out. Glaring at him suspiciously, Rigar put the GDO down again. He repeated the question with their radios, Daniel’s camera, one of the books Daniel had brought with him, then he came to something Daniel definitely didn’t want to answer about.

He picked up one of the zat guns. “What’s this?” he asked.

“A zatnicatel,” Daniel said with perfect truth. It was unlikely in the extreme that Rigar spoke Goa’uld.

“What does it do?”

“It’s a zatnicatel,” he said again, as if that explained everything. Rigar narrowed his eyes and pressed the button on the weapon’s side. It popped open with a little whirring sound, and Rigar seemed to make a leap of logic. Unfortunately, it was an accurate leap.

“It’s a weapon,” he said. “What does it do?”

Daniel looked away, clenching his teeth. Rigar deactivated the zat and put it down again, then walked around behind him. Automatically, Daniel started to turn to keep his face towards his tormentor, but Rigar shoved him with the shock stick between his shoulder blades, both shocking and pushing at once. Daniel jerked forward, away from the offending object, and overbalanced. He wrenched his arms painfully trying to use them to compensate for his shift in position, and, lacking that aid, he landed face first amid the ordnance on the table.

Instead of yanking him back upright, Rigar pressed the inactive shock stick against Daniel’s back, shoving him harder against the table. “Your friend in the woods will not remain hidden forever. When we find him, I will torture him to death in front of you if you do not tell me his name, what he looks like, and how he killed my man.”

“There are only three of us,” Daniel said, his voice distorted by the awkward position. Rigar activated the shock stick again, and Daniel spasmed under the combined pressure and electrical impulse. He was breathing very heavily when Rigar set the stick aside. He started to try and heave himself back upright when the pressure was removed, but Rigar shoved him down, this time with his hands pushing against Daniel’s hips.

His face smashed against the table, miscellaneous bits of weaponry and other equipment pressing into various parts of his anatomy, Daniel struggled not to panic. He felt very trapped, very powerless. Jack and Sam were in the next tent, but they might as well have been miles away. Then he realized that Rigar could be doing this to either one of them and felt his insides contract. “You will tell me what I want to know, Optrican, sooner or later.”

“I am not Optrican,” Daniel growled. Rigar shoved his right leg forward, between Daniel’s, then shoved sideways, yanking Daniel’s right leg to the side.

“Confess, and all of this will stop,” Rigar said. “I will stop hurting you, you’ll be turned over to the government to be dealt with as the spies you are.”

“We are not Optrican spies, damn you!” Daniel growled. “We are peaceful explorers from another planet.”

Rigar put more pressure on him, shoving harder against his rear end. “The truth would serve you better, Optrican.”

Daniel snapped. “You wouldn’t know the truth if it bit you on the --” He broke off abruptly as Rigar forced his legs apart even more harshly, causing him to fall flat on the table, slamming his already mistreated groin into the corner of the surface. Daniel let out a cry of pain that escalated into a shriek when he felt something penetrate his anus. “Son of a bitch!” he growled.

“How did that man die?” demanded Rigar, shoving his thumb deeper into Daniel’s body. Pain and the violation combined threatened to strangle Daniel’s voice. He could not believe this was happening. Gasping in shock and horror, he stared with wide eyes at the object in front of him, a plastic holster for one of their guns, as he felt the thumb worm around inside him. With the other hand, Rigar seized up the shock stick again and tapped Daniel on the back with it, causing him to arch again, then thump back to the table. He saw the holster do a little hop as his face hit the surface. The questioning was relentless. “How did he die?”

“I don’t know!” Daniel cried. He tried to distance himself from the persistent hurting and probing of Rigar’s thumb, but that proved impossible when the bastard shifted the angle of his thumb sharply, creating fresh pain. Daniel cut off the anguished shout before it got past his lips.

“What was your plan to infiltrate Bedrosia?” the man demanded, shifting angles again, causing Daniel to grit his teeth. Tears of pain and humiliation came to his eyes, and though he fought them hard, he could not stop them.

“We are not Optrican spies,” he ground out. Rigar yanked his thumb out, maintaining the sharp angle, and Daniel gasped. Then he shoved two fingers in, spreading the orifice wider than it was meant to go. Daniel let out an involuntary groan of agony, and he wanted to kick out at the bastard, but he had no leverage.

“When were you going to go public with these lies, Optrican?” Rigar demanded, scissoring his fingers and increasing Daniel’s agony yet again. He was uncomfortably aware of the guards in the room with them, felt exposed and vulnerable.

Fury lent his voice strength. “We are not Optrican spies, and no amount of torture is going to change that fact!”

Rigar jerked his fingers, still spread wide, out of Daniel’s anus and stepped back. Stunned, breathing hard from the effort to control his reactions, Daniel wasn’t sure what to expect, but he struggled to get his feet back under him again. A moment later, he felt hands seizing his arms and he was pulled back upright and wheeled around to face Rigar, who was snapping off a pair of what looked to be rubber gloves. Daniel lifted his chin, unable to control the hatred and helpless rage that had to be radiating from him at this point.

“If you don’t tell me the truth, Optrican, I will test that weapon on your friends,” he said, his eyes narrowed with anger and flicking towards the zat gun.

“I am telling you the truth,” Daniel spat. One of the guards shoved his shock stick between Daniel’s legs and the pain sent him reeling to the ground again, not quite unconscious.

“Get him dressed again and in the cage, then set up two more in here. I’ll be back.”

Daniel could hear the uneven steps of the man leaving, and the sound of the tent’s door opening and closing as the guards closed on him, unbinding his arms. They threw his clothes at him and let him fumble himself into them, limbs shaking with pain, exhaustion and humiliation. Then they shoved him back into the cage and began setting up the other two.

If Teal’c didn’t show up soon, they were in real trouble.


	2. Chapter 2

Jack sat in his little cage, sick with worry over what might be happening to Daniel. Despite Jack’s best efforts, the bastard in charge here seemed to have focused on the civilian member of the team. Carter sat in her cage to his left, and Jack could feel the tension thrumming off her. Neither of them spoke. It was smarter not to.

The door slid open again, and Jack looked up to see two guards and that woman who seemed to be second in command. “What’s going on here?” he demanded. “Where’s my man?” She didn’t speak, just walked up to his cage and nodded to the guard who was with her. He used his weapon to open the door and pulled Jack out, binding his wrists behind him. “Where is my man?” he asked again.

The woman didn’t speak, but she nodded to the other guard who got Carter out of her cage and bound her. They were ushered out of the holding tent into the interrogation tent. Jack’s insides twisted unhappily until he saw Daniel. The archeologist appeared to be unharmed, though his expression was alarmingly blank, and he was sitting in a very hunched, self-protective position.

The one guard who had hold of Carter ducked her into the middle cage, pulling the tie off her wrists as he pushed her in. Then the woman and the guard who had hold of him put him in the last cage in the row.

Jack heard a familiar sound and looked up to see that Rigar, the bastard in charge of this dog and pony show, had picked up someone’s zat gun and activated it.

He sat down with his knees up and glared at the world in general. “Daniel, are you okay?” Carter asked worriedly, and Jack looked over at them, wishing she would shut up. Apparently Daniel felt the same, because he just looked at her, still disturbingly blank and then turned back to face forward. Carter glanced over at Jack uneasily. Their normally voluble archeologist was silent, which was never a good sign. Jack might have expected some witty or at least quasi-witty remark about the condition of their lodgings, the gentle treatment he was receiving, but nothing. What had Rigar done to him?

Two of the guards walked out of the tent, leaving Rigar, his second in command and one guard who stood looking sentry-like. The woman stood just behind Rigar, her hands clasped behind her back. Jack was getting vibes off her that suggested she was not happy with the way her commander was handling things, but like a good second, like Carter when she disapproved of Jack’s orders, she was simply doing what she was told.

As the door shut behind the guards who’d left, Jack felt his irritation rise. “Hey Rigar,” he called, and the man looked at him. “You know that we come in peace business?” Carter looked over at him nervously. “Bite me,” Jack said bitterly. Daniel didn’t even shift, which just made Jack worry all the more.

Turning to Daniel as if Jack hadn’t even spoken, Rigar said, “You have one last chance.”

Daniel didn’t seem to move at all, and in a voice and cadence that suggested he’d repeated himself many times, he said, “I don’t know how that man was killed. We are not Optrican spies.” Jack couldn’t see much from his position two cages away, but Daniel was as tense as Jack had ever seen him.

Rigar’s lips twisted angrily and he raised the zat and fired it at Carter. She slammed back against the bars of the cage, then flipped forward again over her upraised knee. Jack noticed that the second in charge looked unhappy as her commander shot at the unarmed and helpless woman, but she took no action.

Daniel looked pissed, but he didn’t speak or move.

Rigar spoke again. “Is there another one of your people out there?”

Daniel voice was slow and deliberate, almost exactly the same as before. “I don’t know how that man was killed. We are not--”

Jack really didn’t like looking at the business end of a zat, or the angry face behind it. He felt the jolt as the zat blast hit him.

* * *

Daniel winced as the zat hit Jack, but then the older man’s body slumped against the side of his cage rather than falling forward away from the electrically charged wall of the cage. He kept shaking as the cage continued to pour electricity into him.

Panicking, Daniel yelled, “No, there is not another one of my team out there! Turn it off!”

“What’s he look like?” Rigar demanded.

Anger and fear surged through him. “Turn it off! You’ll kill him!”

Rigar glared at him, cold and malicious. “No. _You_ will kill him.”

Daniel knew he couldn’t give way, despite the fact that Jack was frying on the bars of his cage. It was one of the hardest things he’d ever done, not blurting out the truth, but he couldn’t give one friend up to save another. His eyes were locked with Rigar’s and they glared at each other in mutual hatred. After several seconds, Rigar looked like he was going to say something, but then they both heard the sound of the gate activating outside.

Parey, the woman who was second in command, turned, and then Rigar turned as well. Daniel was hyper aware of Jack’s situation, but they seemed to be blind to it.

“Commander Rigar!” called a voice from outside.

Rigar turned back to look at Daniel, then his eyes flicked towards Jack, as if he were considering what good that prisoner would be to him dead. He grabbed the shock stick out of the guard’s hands and walked over to Jack’s cage where he paused, watching briefly. Daniel was ready to scream, but he didn’t dare make a sound. Rigar deactivated the cage, and Daniel sagged with relief. Then their captor turned, tossed the shock stick to the man he’d taken it from, and limped hastily from the room. Parey followed him leaving Daniel alone with the guard and his two unconscious friends, hoping that Sam wouldn’t shift and fall against the side of her cage.

He knew the gate had to be Hammond. They were past due for contact, and this was standard procedure. Jack’s radio sparked to life with General Hammond’s voice. “SG-1, this is General Hammond. Come in. I repeat, SG-1, this is General Hammond. Come in.”

Daniel looked up in desperation. The damned thing was so far away and there was nothing he could do. The guard ran over to it, snatched it up and ran out of the tent. What would Rigar tell Hammond, assuming he even spoke to him?

Now with no news about what was going on, Daniel sat anxiously. There were a number of standard procedures, one of them should happen shortly, whether Rigar spoke to Hammond or not. Right on cue, the MALP came to life. With its activation, the radio began blaring over its external speakers, and the camera started moving.

“From where do you broadcast?” Rigar demanded. “Are you in Optrica or within Bedrosian borders?”

Sounding calm as only Hammond could, the general said, “Once my people are returned, I will be happy to discuss an exchange of information with you.” Daniel started waving his arms, desperately trying to get their attention. The MALP moved towards him, finally seeming to see him. Daniel started making gestures, trying to mime that if they could just bring him the shock stick on the table, he might be able to get out of his cage and help the others. The conversation continued.

“You will send the plans for this device,” Rigar instructed. “You will send the coordinates of your position. And when you have exposed this entire fraud, I will consider sparing your operatives’ lives.”

The door opened and Daniel, knowing he didn’t dare let on that he’d been trying to communicate with his home base, made a cut off gesture, hoping they’d see it and stop the MALP. It could prove an invaluable tool if they were able to keep it operative. He then looked away, trying to seem casual.

Both Rigar and Parey came into the tent and looked at the three of them in their cages, but they didn’t approach any of them. Instead, they turned towards Sam and Jack, who were beginning to move more. Rigar looked over at them, watching, and Daniel kept his head down, trying not to challenge the man to further acts of violence. “Do we understand each other?” Hammond demanded over the radio.

Rigar turned back to the camera. “I assure you, if you make any attempt at rescue, I will kill your people.” That said, he raised the zat and fired it at the MALP, killing the camera and all the onboard electrical systems with a single shot.

He turned then and faced the prisoners again. More guards came in, and Rigar tossed the radio and the zat back onto the table. “Call in a transport shuttle,” he ordered, and Daniel looked up, deeply alarmed. “I want them moved to a more secure facility.” Neither of the others seemed able to take in the information that Rigar was planning on moving them away from the vicinity of the gate.

The guards came towards them, taking first Jack, then Sam, then, with them already out the door, they pulled Daniel out of his cage. He hissed at the pain the movement caused him, but repressed any further reaction stoically. He didn’t want either his tormentors or his teammates to know how badly he was hurt. The one would take too much pleasure in it, the other would worry too much. He stumbled as they passed the table and knocked a few things sideways. Getting up again, he picked up his glasses and tucked them into his shirt. He couldn’t do long without them, and nothing more useful was in his reach.

* * *

When his head was finally clear, Jack realized that he’d had worse than a zat blast. His muscles were all twitching unpredictably, and he felt very woozy. He had dim recollections of Daniel’s voice sounding panicked, Rigar’s voice sounding angry, and then nothing at all.

“They found the DHD,” Daniel said abruptly after a long silence. “It was buried and they dug it up. If we can just find Teal’c and get to it, we can get home.”

“If,” Jack said, then cursed himself for sounding pessimistic.

“Are you two all right?” Daniel asked.

“Fine, Daniel,” Carter said. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“Jack, are you all right?” Daniel asked, ignoring Carter’s questions.

“I’m fine,” Jack said. The tremors were decreasing as time went by. He peered over at Daniel who seemed very ill at ease and ready to fly apart from tension.

They heard the sound of one of the local flying vehicles coming in for a landing, and Jack thought it sounded a little off. Daniel cleared his throat and said, “I think I should probably tell --”

“Shh!” Jack exclaimed, listening closely. “I don’t think . . . that thing isn’t coming in normally.”

“No, I think you’re right,” Carter said.

They waited in tense silence until the door opened. Of all the people Jack might have expected, Nyan was the last. He walked in carrying two of those shock stick things and a zat. He went straight to Carter’s cage first.

“Nyan!” she exclaimed.

He backed up to let her get out of the cage and handed her one of the shock sticks. “Hit the side button to shoot long range,” he instructed her. Jack had to approve of his priorities. Get someone else free and armed immediately, then get to freeing the others. Nyan turned to Daniel’s cage and opened it.

“Where’s Teal’c?” Daniel asked.

“He’s outside,” Nyan replied.

Carter opened Jack’s cage and he kicked his door open and stood up, taking the zat from her. “Daniel, dial us up. We’ll lay down cover.”

Jack went out the door, firing as he went. He didn’t particularly care if he killed any of the locals. This place was wacko. The next few minutes were a pitched battle between their forces and the locals. Teal’c was firing from the door to the shuttle they had to have commandeered to get in through the shield. Daniel ran across the clearing, narrowly missing several shots from those shock sticks, and sliding feet first into the pit where the DHD had to be.

Jack ducked into deeper cover when Daniel was safe in the pit, but about halfway through the dial up, he had to dodge a blast from a young man on the other side of the camp. Jack glared over and fired at him, pleased to see him fall. Finally, the gate activated, the kawoosh surging out, then falling back to pool vertically.

“Go!” Teal’c shouted from the shuttle and Jack saw Daniel get up and literally fly through the gate.

As soon as Daniel was gone, Jack yelled, “Carter, go!” She ran across the open space, shock stick still gripped in her hand, and went through. Jack looked over at Teal’c. His voice had seemed a little hoarse, and he didn’t look any too good. Turning to Nyan, Jack said, “Nyan, cover me?”

“I will,” Nyan replied, and Jack ran towards the shuttle and ran inside, still firing and dodging fire. Teal’c started to come at him, his eyes open but clearly not seeing well. “Teal’c! Gah!” Realizing who he was, Teal’c stumbled up against the other side of the doorway. “Look a little rough, there, Teal’c,” he said, but Teal’c didn’t respond. He had some kind of a burn all across his face. “We gotta go,” Jack said hastily and Teal’c nodded. He put out a hand. “Ready?” he asked. At Teal’c’s affirmative, he said, “Go!”

He held onto the big guy’s arm as they ran towards gate. Nyan ran up behind them, but a moment later, Jack heard a cry and the sound of a falling body. He looked back over his shoulder and he and Teal’c came to a halt. Jack looked around to see who had fired at him and saw Rigar with a shock stick in hand, glaring at the fallen man. Jack raised the zat and Rigar saw him just in time to turn and fire at him, but Jack’s blast hit him and he fell.

Teal’c had gone back for Nyan. “Teal’c!” Jack called.

The Jaffa did not pause, just dragged Nyan to his feet and said, “He is coming with us, O’Neill.” Jack ran back and helped Teal’c get Nyan to the gate. More shuttles arrived and started strafing them. They leapt through the gate and stopped halfway down the ramp with SFs pointing guns at them. Fraiser and Hammond stood behind them with Carter and Daniel.

“General Hammond, he is a friend!” called Teal’c.

“Stand down!” Hammond ordered. The guards lowered the guns and Fraiser started forward with a couple of medics.

Nyan went down like a log, and Teal’c went down to one knee. Neither of them was in good shape.

“A little help here!” he called, but they were already taking control as Jack stumbled down the steps to Hammond.

“You all right?” Hammond asked.

“I’ve been better,” Jack said.

“I’m glad to have you all back in one piece,” Hammond replied. “Who’s the other man?”

“Nyan, a Bedrosian archeologist,” Daniel said. “He helped us escape. Without his help . . .” His voice trailed off, but he didn’t have to say any more. Hammond nodded and they turned to watch the medics.


	3. Chapter 3

As Dr. Fraiser went by with the two stretchers carrying Nyan and Teal’c, she looked up at the rest of the team. “The three of you, hit the showers and then come straight to the infirmary. We should have these two stabilized by then.”

Jack nodded and waited for the other two to go ahead of him. Sam gave them both a tired smile and headed out, Daniel, however, seemed to be trying to wait him out. Jack raised an eyebrow. “What’s up?” he asked.

Daniel blinked at him, his usually expressive face very nearly blank. “Nothing. I --” He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Well then, it’s time to hit the showers, like the doc says.” Jack watched his friend, who looked as if he were holding himself together with the arms that were wrapped around his middle. Jack was frankly worried. Rigar had taken all three of them separately to question them for roughly equal amounts of time, and then he’d left them in the prison tent for a while together.

Then abruptly, the guards and that woman who seemed to be second in command had come in. Jack had tried to call their attention to him. As the commanding officer, he was the one they should have been focusing on, but they had ignored him, shocking Daniel and taking him away. For an hour or more. He and Sam had watched them take him, and he knew what he was thinking at the time. He was wondering if they would see Daniel again.

Now he looked shellshocked. It was worrisome to look into those dull blue eyes, knowing what the man should look like.

Jack walked over to stand beside him. “Come on, Daniel, the showers,” he said, reaching out and putting a gentle hand on the center of the archeologist’s back. He was unprepared for the reaction this caused. Daniel flinched away, pain flashing across his face before it was suppressed. Neither man spoke for a moment. They were alone in the gate room, the SFs having filed out and Hammond having returned to the control room. “Daniel?” he said slowly.

“Jack?” the other man said, his eyes blank of expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“That hurt,” he said.

Jack rigidly controlled his agitation. “I got that,” he replied. “What happened?”

Daniel shrugged, and his lips tightened as the motion clearly caused him more pain. “Those shock sticks. You know.”

“Evidently not,” Jack said. “Could you be more explicit? And could we head on to the showers?”

“I don’t think I should,” Daniel said after a moment. “Shower, I mean, not be explicit,” he added hastily as Jack opened his mouth to ask.

“Why not?”

“There are burns,” Daniel said finally, his voice guarded. “They should probably be checked out before I get them wet.”

“Burns?” Jack repeated, raising his eyebrows.

“Yes, Jack, burns.”

Daniel was being maddeningly monosyllabic. Jack took a deep breath and said, “I don’t have any burns.”

Nodding, Daniel said, “Well, he didn’t use those things against your bare skin.” Jack was glad of the practice he’d had in controlling his expressions because he felt an instant surge of anger at these words. Abruptly a bit of life came into Daniel’s eyes and he looked worriedly at Jack. “Did he?” he asked anxiously.

Jack shook his head. “No. And I don’t think he did anything like that to Carter, either.”

Daniel nodded slowly. “Good,” he said.

“Well, then,” Jack said. “Let’s get you to the infirmary.” He was having some issues thinking about how much of Daniel’s clothing would have to have been removed for Rigar to be able to give him a burn with one of those things between his shoulder blades.

“I know the way, Jack,” Daniel said.

Jack shrugged. “I know that.”

Daniel sighed and they started moving. Jack was keeping an unobtrusive eye on the way he was moving, and it was clear that he had pain in other regions of his body. Jack was stiff. Being shocked repeatedly could do that to a person. Daniel looked as if he were suffering a good deal more than simple stiffness. “So how many other burns do you have?” Jack asked nonchalantly.

“A few,” Daniel said. His voice, his manner, his entire posture screamed that he was understating the case, but there would be no benefit in trying to force the issue right now. One of the side effects of being CO of SG-1 was that his team could not hide any medical secrets from him. Dr. Fraiser would examine Daniel, and whether he was willing to talk to Jack about it or not, the information would come across his desk within twenty-four hours.

They walked into the infirmary and as Jack started to signal for an available nurse, Daniel grabbed his arm in a tight grip. “I’d rather wait for Janet,” he said quietly.

“That could be a while,” Jack said, gazing anxiously into the younger man’s face. Daniel’s expression was very blank again, alarmingly blank, and he wasn’t meeting Jack’s eyes, nor had he released the death grip on Jack’s arm. “Junior was hurt, so she may be with Teal’c for a while.”

“I’d rather wait,” Daniel repeated, his lips taking a stubborn line. He must have sensed Jack’s unspoken concern, though, for his eyes warmed slightly and he actually met the other man’s gaze. “There’s nothing life-threatening, Jack, truly. I just --” Daniel’s eyes shifted away again. “I’d rather wait.”

“Okay,” Jack said, looking down at Daniel’s white-knuckled hand. “But let’s get you a bed to sit on.”

“Standing’s fine,” Daniel said sharply. He seemed abruptly to notice that he was still holding on to Jack and let go.

Dr. Fraiser’s staff was a very perceptive group of people. They’d have to be, Jack reflected, given the nature of more than half the people who seemed to go through the stargate. The medics, nurses and doctors had to get pretty tired of the words, “I’m fine,” no matter who said them. Lt. Cogan, one of the nurses, caught Jack’s eye as he stood at the edge of the room with Daniel. He shook his head slightly and shrugged. She nodded, finished what she was doing, and slipped unobtrusively out of the room.

A gurney entered as she left, carrying Nyan, who appeared to be sedated. The orderlies gently shifted him from the gurney to the bed and a pair of SFs took up positions on either side of the head of the bed. They were apparently guarding the base against the possible dangers posed by a rampaging archeologist.

Daniel would ordinarily be keenly interested in this, concerned about the other man’s comfort, intrigued by the presence of an alien archeologist. He obviously couldn’t talk to an unconscious man, but Jack would have expected a low-voiced commentary about Nyan’s state of health and his presumed present and future states of mind. After that, Jack could expect to hear a litany of what exciting things could be learned and explored when two archeologists from radically different cultures got together.

Instead, Daniel barely seemed to register that Nyan had been brought in. This was so unlike him that Jack began to tap his foot anxiously. A glare from his friend reassured him somewhat, and he forced his foot still again. It appeared that Daniel wasn’t entirely in his own world after all. Just not particularly active in this one. Jack pursed his lips. Dared he ask what had happened? A sidelong look at Daniel’s face decided him against it.

Lt. Cogan came back in, caught Jack’s eye again and nodded very slightly. Taking it that she’d informed Fraiser of the situation, Jack gave her an answering nod and she returned to her normal duties. Once again, though, this was cause for concern. When not so focused on a project that his mind excluded all other input, Daniel was alive to nuances of behavior all around him. Either he was ignoring the subtle interchange between Jack and Lt. Cogan, hard to believe given his immediate annoyed reaction to Jack’s toe tapping, or he was genuinely unaware of the byplay. Again, not like Daniel.

No more than ten minutes later, Dr. Fraiser showed up. She walked right over to the pair of them and said, “Teal’c is going to be fine. I’ve just put him in isolation till we’re sure Junior’s back on duty.”

Daniel gave her a genuine smile. “Good.”

“So, why no shower?” she asked, glancing back and forth between them.

Daniel grimaced. “Jack saw fit to baby-sit me,” he said. He looked down and then met the doctor’s eyes. “And, Janet, I think you’d better take a look at me before I go getting wet.”

Fraiser clearly found this as alarming as Jack had. None of SG-1 was ever happy about or particularly willing to submit to the mandatory post-mission medical exams, and all of them tended to put them off if possible. “Okay, Daniel, you have my undivided attention.”

There was a pause during which none of the three of them spoke. Then Daniel, face creased with uncertainty and something like embarrassment, turned an expectant look on him.

Jack stepped away, nodding. “Well, I hear a shower calling to me,” he said. Daniel looked away instantly, seeming relieved, and Fraiser gave Jack an apprehensive look. Shrugging infinitesimally, Jack left the infirmary.

He ran into Carter not far down the hall. She was clearly fresh from the showers and she gave him an odd look. “No shower, sir?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “And where’s Daniel?”

“With Fraiser,” Jack said. People were moving past them through the hall, and he didn’t want to be too explicit.

She picked up on the undercurrents immediately. Jack sighed. So did half the other people who caught what he’d said, no doubt. There weren’t many people on base who didn’t have regular contact with the head of the archeology department.

“What’s wrong?” Sam asked quietly.

“All I got him to tell me was that he has a few burns.”

“Burns?” He raised his eyebrows at the louder tone. She lowered her voice again. “But --”

He shook his head. “I think there’s more to it,” he said very quietly. “But he wasn’t talking. He’s with Fraiser now, and I’ve got to get a shower.”

She nodded pensively, eyes wide, and went past him towards the infirmary. Jack went on to the locker room and showered quickly. When Daniel went silent, it was never a good sign.


	4. Chapter 4

As Jack left the infirmary, Dr. Fraiser turned back to Daniel. Unaccountably, even though he’d as good as told Jack to go, even though he _really_ didn’t want him present for the exam, Daniel felt a stab of abandonment watching him leave.

“Daniel?” Janet was looking at him somberly, concern in her chocolate brown eyes.

“Sorry, Janet,” he said, wondering just how long he’d been woolgathering.

“Bad?” she asked gently.

He screwed up his lips briefly in an effort to control an emotional response. “You could say that,” he replied after a moment.

“Come on, this way.” She took him into one of the exam rooms. Giving him a gown, she said, “Can you manage to get undressed yourself?” He nodded and started to take off his jacket, but a hiss escaped him despite his best efforts to suppress it. “Whoa, hold up there,” she said. Coming around behind him, she helped him slip out of the sleeves. “Where are you hurt?” she asked. “And how?”

“Electrical shock,” Daniel said. “A little bit of everywhere, really.”

As he answered her question, she was untucking his shirt from his pants and lifting it with sure, gentle hands. When it was bunched up at his shoulders, she let out a hiss of her own. “Bad?” he asked, consciously mimicking her earlier question.

“Well, it’s not good,” she said. “You have a triangular burn, roughly the size and shape of an iron, in the middle of your back between your shoulder blades. There are three more, smaller and less intense, slightly lower on your back.”

“Ah,” Daniel said.

“Let’s get your shirt off,” she said. He’d been holding the front of it away from his chest and abdominal regions, but it slipped out of his grasp and the folds of fabric rubbed up against the burn on his chest.

“Ah!” Daniel said again, with a slightly different intonation.

“I’m sorry,” she said immediately. “Did I --”

“No, I did,” he said. Very stiffly, because his shoulders were aching after the way he’d been bound and manhandled, he slipped the shirt off over his head.

She walked around in front, and her face crinkled with sympathy. “The big one on your back is worse, but these are no picnic.”

Daniel started to shrug but aborted the gesture as he felt stabs of pain. “The burns only just started to really hurt in the last little while,” he said.

“Do Jack and Sam have similar burns?”

“Jack said no,” Daniel said. “And I don’t think so. He didn’t strip them.”

Janet had picked up her clipboard and was making notations. She paused and her eyes lifted to meet his. “Strip?” she repeated.

He looked away. “Yeah, strip,” he said.

“Daniel, what happened?” He actually shrugged this time, and then winced. “Daniel?” He kept his mouth closed, not able to think of anything he was willing to say. She put her hand on his arm, and he closed his eyes. “I need to know what happened so I can treat you properly.”

He put his hands on his waistband and started undoing his belt. “He had some pretty basic ideas about torture,” Daniel said after a moment, undoing his fly. He wet his lips. “I’m not sure how easily I’m going to manage this,” he said. “There are some burns in . . . in a pretty intimate place.”

Janet opened her mouth, her eyes widening slightly, but to Daniel’s relief she didn’t say anything, just came forward. “Let’s get your boots off first,” she said, kneeling down. “Can you sit down comfortably?”

“Not so’s you’d notice,” he said, grimacing. “As I said, some very basic ideas.”

She looked up, eyes dark with hope that she was misunderstanding him. He looked away again and she nodded, taking in a deep breath and sighing. “I see. Well, can you at least lift one foot at a time?”

“I think I can manage that,” he said. He was really beginning to be sore all over. There were bruises up and down his arms, and his knees were pretty banged up from the way the guards had dragged him along. Resting one hand on the exam bed to balance himself, he lifted first one foot and then the other, letting her remove his boots. Then she gently eased his pants down and helped him step out of them, following suit with his boxers.

She let out a muffled exclamation when she saw the burns on his genitals, and then she looked up at him seriously. “Daniel, what other injuries do you have?”

“That’s the extent of the burns, I think, and the bruises are kind of visible,” he said, hedging slightly, though he’d already as good as told her. Janet’s silences were better than cross examination, though, and he sighed. “And there might be some rectal tearing,” he said, looking steadfastly at the wall above her head. “I don’t think there’s anything in the colon, or nothing serious. I’m not in enough pain for that.”

This brought on a series of embarrassing questions that he answered as best he could. The examination was difficult to cope with because he wound up leaning over the exam table on his elbows with her behind him. It was disturbing and gut-wrenching, and he kept his emotional reaction solidly locked down because he didn’t want to upset her. By the time she was done, though, he was ready to scream.

“Well, there doesn’t appear to be any rectal tearing,” she said finally, and he heaved a sigh of relief. “There’s a bit of abrasion on your anus, and some small tears. Stay there for a moment,” she said. “Let me get some antibiotic ointment.” He closed his eyes. She moved around for a moment and then came back. As she gently began to apply it, he felt tears springing to his eyes again and tried ruthlessly to suppress them.

An attack like that one never seemed to end until the healing was over, Daniel reflected. Janet wasn’t trying to humiliate him, but the position, the inevitable comparison . . . it was invidious.

The burns on his torso were easily treated with a cream that cooled and soothed the skin. He put out his hand for the cream as she finished the one on his belly and she handed it over without demur. He dealt with the last of the burns, and she held out a very soft hospital gown for him to put on. He looked at it, not taking it. “Um . . . Janet, I’d really rather --”

“You’re staying twenty-four hours at the very least,” she said in a voice that brooked no opposition.

Daniel shook his head. “Janet, I can manage, and I don’t want --”

“You’ve admitted to losing consciousness while in custody, correct?” she asked.

“Once,” he said, glaring at her. “For a few seconds.”

“We have no way of knowing what they might have done to you in that time, or even if your perception of the length is accurate, Daniel. You have injuries that you can’t treat for yourself, and you’re going to be in a lot more pain tomorrow than you’re in today.”

Sighing in frustration, he took the hospital gown and let her help him into it. “I don’t want to be here,” he said. “I want to sleep in my own bed.”

“I know,” she said. “But it’s out of the question for the time being.” He let out a heartfelt oath in Abydonian and she chuckled. “Don’t think because I don’t know the meaning of that word, I don’t know the sentiment contained therein,” she said.

“I would never make that error,” Daniel said. “So, do I get some kind of underwear?”

“Burns do better with air circulating around them,” she said.

“Charming.” Daniel looked down at himself in the pale blue hospital gown and sighed.

“I’m sorry, Daniel.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “Let’s get you to bed.”

He was mildly surprised and a little disappointed not to find Jack and Sam waiting for him. Janet led him over to the bed next to where Nyan was still sleeping and helped him up on it. He wound up lying on his side facing the other archeologist, because lying on either his back or his front was just not comfortable, and sitting up wasn’t feasible either. A wave of rage and hate toward that bastard swept over him, and he struggled to control it. Wallowing in his anger wasn’t going to help anything.

“Hey, there, Daniel, feeling better?” Jack’s voice came from behind him.

He grimaced and turned his head. “Not exactly,” he said. His back hurt when he turned too far and he thumped his head back down against his arm. “I’m told it will get worse before it gets better,” he added, speaking to the man behind him.

“I know that one,” Jack said as he came around the bed and sat down in the chair where his eyes and Daniel’s were on level. “It sucks.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow, a little concerned. “How are you?”

The colonel shrugged. “A little shaky, a little bruised, but otherwise fine.”

He felt his shoulders relax slightly, releasing a tension he hadn’t known he had. “Good. And Sam?”

“The same,” Jack said. “She’s in the control room. There’s a problem with the dialing computer, and . . .” He shrugged again, and Daniel nodded, knowing that the rest of the explanation would likely mean nothing to either of them. Jack leaned forward slightly. “Fraiser says she’s keeping you here for a minimum of twenty-four hours,” he remarked. Since Daniel’s only response to that involved curse words in languages Jack didn’t even know the names of, Daniel just nodded. “So, you want to tell me what happened?”

He opened his mouth and closed it again, looking towards the ceiling and wetting his lips. Jack just waited expectantly. Finally, Daniel sighed. “Honestly, not really.” He was holding on to his emotions by teeth and toenails, here, and he knew that if he had to talk about it there was a good chance he’d break down.

Janet walked up. “He hasn’t told me more than the basic outline so I’d understand his injuries,” she said helpfully.

“Oddly,” Daniel said, looking around at the busy infirmary, “this isn’t the kind of thing I’m eager to talk about in a public place.” He hoped this would dissuade them, but from the depth of sympathy in their expressions, he suspected not. People didn’t tend to look quite that sympathetic when they were going to let you off the hook.

Janet glanced around the room. “I’ve got everyone working at a distance as much as possible, Daniel,” she said.

Jack shifted slightly in his chair, and the movement caught Daniel’s eye, no doubt Jack’s plan as he grimaced in commiseration. “I’m sorry, big guy, but I need to know.”

Daniel knew that. He didn’t like it, but he knew it. He closed his eyes and pursed his lips. “Right,” he said curtly. There was a pause that threatened to lengthen for several minutes.

Finally, Jack seemed to decide that he had to get the ball rolling himself. “Okay,” he said, “you were taken away by that woman and the two guards. Then --”

“Parey,” Daniel said, knowing that he was seizing on inconsequentials to delay the inevitable. “Her name is Parey.”

“Right,” Jack said. “So this Parey person took you away. What happened? You kept saying something about not knowing how someone died.”

Daniel grimaced and took a deep breath. It was over. Teal’c was out of danger, Sam and Jack were no longer in cages, and he was -- well, he wasn’t exactly free, but this beat the hell out of Bedrosian hospitality. Jack was waiting. Daniel licked his lips nervously. “Rigar took me out and showed me one of their guards who had clearly been killed by a staff weapon.” It had been a horrible moment. He’d been certain that his face gave him away, but he still couldn’t say anything. Didn’t dare say anything. Daniel felt a shiver, even though he wasn’t the least bit cold. “He wanted to know how the man had died, and I told him what we’d been telling him. There were only three of us and I didn’t know what had happened.”

Jack nodded, looking grim. Daniel’s eyes flicked to Fraiser who was standing with her arms crossed, gazing down with motherly compassion. Daniel turned his eyes away quickly. It was exactly that reaction he’d wanted to avoid by leaving the infirmary as quickly as possible.

Daniel realized that he’d been silent a while, and they were waiting. He swallowed. “When I didn’t give him the answer he wanted, he dragged me over to the DHD they’d dug up and demanded to know what it was. I told him it controlled the gate, and he got belligerent about there being no such thing as a gate. Then he had me taken back into the interrogation tent.” Here Daniel dried up.

Once again the pause lengthened until Jack clearly felt he had to jump start him. “Okay, then what happened?”

Daniel took a deep breath. “He . . . he didn’t ask any questions right away. He just started talking to me.”

“About?” Jack asked.

“Sorry,” Daniel said. “I’m --”

“It’s okay,” Jack said, reaching out and squeezing Daniel’s shoulder lightly. “Just . . . just go on. What was he talking about?”

Daniel bit his lip. “He told me he could see why I was the spokesman of the group, started talking about what about me made me a good person for . . . to be the front man for this ‘Optrican conspiracy’ he was so sure we were involved with.” Jack nodded, his expression a dry comment on the ‘Optrican conspiracy.’ Daniel snorted, but then bit his lip. “Rigar shocked me a couple of times, and asked me once about ‘our man in the woods.’ I told him we didn’t have a man in the woods and he ordered me stripped.” Daniel had turned his face away, not wanting to see Jack’s reaction, but his eyes flicked involuntarily towards his friend’s face at that moment and he saw the man’s jaw clench tightly.

“Go on,” Jack said, and Daniel nodded.

“The two guards took my clothes off and Rigar started questioning me again.” Daniel bit his lip. This shouldn’t be so damned hard to talk about. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He knew that, and he knew both of them knew that. It didn’t stop the sick sense of shame that threaded through him at the memory of his utter helplessness. Jack was being very patient through his frequent pauses. Rolling his lips in over his teeth and then out again, Daniel cleared his throat. “He shocked me once on the chest, once on the belly and then . . .” He gulped and sort of gestured vaguely towards his groin. Jack nodded. “That knocked me out for a couple of seconds. At that point he’d started asking me about timelines and whether Nyan was involved from the start.”

Jack glanced over his shoulder at the other archeologist. “Well, we know what Rigar’s bound to think now,” he said and Daniel nodded agreement.

Daniel let out a little sigh of sympathy for the unconscious man in the next bed. “Yeah. Well, he started up again when I came to, shocked me once while I was still on the ground, then dragged me over to the table, tied my hands behind my back and started asking me about our stuff.” Daniel shook his head, grimacing. “I think I handled that badly. I answered about the harmless things, my books, the radios, but when he asked about the zat, I didn’t answer quite as freely, and he guessed that it was a weapon.”

“You did the best you could, Daniel,” Jack said reassuringly. “You did fine.”

Shrugging very gingerly, he licked his lips. “When I wouldn’t answer he used the stick to knock me off balance and I fell face first across the table, and he shoved me down hard.” Daniel paused, scraping his teeth over his bottom lip, trying to repress the sense of abject humiliation that washed over him. Again, without his willing them to, his eyes darted towards Jack. The colonel’s eyes had gone wide and very guarded at that moment and Daniel shook his head, realizing what he must be thinking. “Not like that, Jack,” he assured him, ignoring Janet’s raised eyebrow. “It wasn’t that bad.”

Jack seemed to have made an effort to smooth his expression back to that of a stone soldier. “Tell me what happened,” he said quietly.

The words seemed to freeze in Daniel’s mouth. He took a deep breath. Maybe he could just say it all if he concentrated on it as if it were a lecture. As if he were translating a text. Making a powerful effort, he forced his voice to studied nonchalance, but he didn’t look at Jack as he started speaking once more. “Well, he started asking me about Teal’c again, and I gave him the same answer. He was holding me down against the table with one of those staffs of theirs, then when I refused to answer he activated it.” He glanced up at Janet. “Probably that’s the really bad burn you mentioned. It lasted a while, and there was nowhere for me to flinch away from it.” Janet nodded, looking extremely bland. He caught a glimpse of the frozen, appalled look on Jack’s face, but he couldn’t stop the words falling from his lips. “He threatened to torture Teal’c to death in front of me when they found him unless I gave him up. Kept saying he’d stop hurting me if I’d just answered his . . .” The emotions wouldn’t stay repressed. “His damned questions. And all I could think about was what horrible things he might do to an actual alien. He’d probably make Harry Maybourne and the NID look like saints.” He snorted, and Jack did too. “If you can believe it, he told me that the truth would be better. I started to tell him he wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him on the ass. And that’s when he --” Daniel broke off, the flow of words stopping as abruptly as if a wall had come down to block them. Blinking stupidly, he looked up at Janet again. “I can’t. I can’t say it.”

Janet just opened her mouth and closed it again. After a moment, Daniel realized that she wasn’t going to fill in the gaps -- that she couldn’t fill in the gaps. She didn’t have all the information necessary. She knew in a general sense what had happened, but she didn’t know why.

Jack was still looking stony, but there was an anxious sympathy in those brown eyes that made Daniel feel somehow even more helpless than he had before. He swallowed, shaking his head and looking away, wishing he could bang it against the wall. This was stupid. It was no big deal. Why should it be any different than describing the bastard sticking a shock stick in his crotch and activating it?

Finally, Jack leaned forward, catching the younger man’s eyes. “Daniel?” he asked. “What happened?”

“As I told Janet, that guy has some pretty basic ideas about torture,” Daniel said. Jack’s eyes went dark, and it was clear he thought he knew what had happened. Daniel shook his head hastily. “It was . . . it wasn’t . . .” He grimaced. “Why the hell is this so damned hard to say?” He could see that the longer he delayed, the worse images Jack was getting in his head.

“You told him that he wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him on the ass,” Jack prompted gently.

“No. That’s what I started to say. Before I even finished --” Daniel gulped. “He . . . he stuck his . . . his thumb . . .” Daniel could feel himself going red. No matter how many times he tried to tell himself that it was just another way to cause him pain and try to pry information out of him, it felt immensely more personal than that. The very clinical way in which Rigar went about it had just made it worse.


	5. Chapter 5

Jack closed his eyes.   He didn’t want to hear any more. He didn’t want to make Daniel talk about something he so clearly and desperately didn’t want to describe, but he had to know what that bastard had done to his teammate.

Fraiser cleared her throat. “Maybe that’s enough for now. I think --”

“No,” Daniel said in a voice that was both ragged and firm, making Jack lift his head with surprise. He hadn’t been planning on protesting the doctor’s decision. “No, it’s not going to get any easier to talk about it, so there’s no point in putting it off, right?”

“There’s no need for you to force yourself through this right now, Daniel,” Fraiser said.

Daniel’s eyes shifted to Jack’s, and the confidence and trust that were reflected there were mind boggling, especially considering recent events. “Jack wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t necessary, Janet. Besides, this is stupid. This whole reaction is out of proportion.”

Jack grimaced sourly. Daniel’s body belied his casual tone and words. It was an education in body language talking to this man. He was capable of ten or fifteen separate emotional responses between the question, “How are you?” and the inevitable answer, “Fine.” If you couldn’t recognize what his body language meant, you’d never know what was going on in the mind of Dr. Daniel Jackson, because there was no way he’d ever tell you. His beliefs, opinions and knowledge would spill out of his mouth at the slightest provocation, but he was an incredibly private man where his emotional life was concerned. Jack had known a lot of taciturn men in his time, hell, he’d been one himself for years. But because Daniel was so free in other areas, so damned talkative, it was easy to assume that you understood him.

Jack had watched people like Robert Makepeace and even General Hammond make assumptions about Daniel based on the volumes of information the man shared openly without ever seeming to realize that there were reams of data that he was keeping firmly locked inside.

“Out of proportion?” he repeated. “How so?”

Daniel shook his head. “Let me just tell you what happened so you can get to the debriefing and . . .” The archeologist looked momentarily dismayed. “And debrief,” he finished lamely. Jack wanted to say something more, to demand an answer to his question, but Daniel forged ahead, his eyes fixed firmly on a joint in the electrical piping on the walls. “He put his thumb into my anus and probed,” Daniel said, sounding distant and very much apart from both his words and his listeners. “While he did this he kept asking me how his man died. I told him I didn’t know, and he shocked me.” Daniel’s brows knit. “The gloves he was wearing must be insulated, I guess,” he said, a dizzying blur of emotions crossing his face too fast to be identified. Before Jack could get a handle on even one of those swiftly moving reactions, Daniel’s face went distant again, his eyes still on the wall. “He asked about the conspiracy again and I told him we weren’t spies. He . . .” Daniel visibly steeled himself. “He withdrew his thumb and inserted two fingers.” Jack’s teeth were clenched hard enough that he was starting to have a headache from the tension. “I continued to refuse to answer, so he removed the fingers and had his men stand me up.” Daniel swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Rigar then told me he’d test the zat on you two,” nodding at Jack, “if I didn’t start telling him the truth. When I told him that I was telling him the truth, one of the guards zapped me in the . . .” He gestured again, seeming unable to actually say that they’d fried his balls for him. “And that’s it. Rigar told them to get me dressed and in the cage.”

“There’s nothing else?” Jack asked.

“They threw my clothes at me, I got myself into them and they shoved me in the cage.” Daniel shrugged, wincing at the pain the movement apparently caused him. “You know the rest.”

Well it was no wonder that Daniel had been so disconnected from Sam and Jack when they’d been brought in, Jack reflected. He leaned forward and squeezed Daniel’s shoulder again. “You okay, big guy?”

“I’m more worried about Teal’c,” Daniel said frankly. “Is he okay?”

Dr. Fraiser nodded. “He’ll be fine, Daniel,” she said.

Jack grinned. “Yeah, Junior will take care of him, like always.” He stood up. “I’ll be back as soon as the debriefing’s over, just to make sure you don’t have too much time to get bored.” Or to think too hard. It was clear from Daniel’s words that he thought his reaction was more than a little over the top, and Jack wanted to head that reaction off if he could. Daniel tended to beat up on himself enough as it was.

He caught Fraiser’s eye and she followed him to the doorway of the infirmary. “Look, I know you want him to rest, and I agree, but you’ve got to find him something to do or he’s going to brood.”

“I can see that,” she said, raising an eyebrow as if she were surprised at his perception. “What do you suggest?”

“I don’t know. Ask him if he’s got any moderately movable projects up there in his office and then send someone for it, I guess. Unless you think he’s capable of going and fetching it himself.”

“No,” she said. “I’ll work something out, colonel, don’t worry.” She handed him a file. “Please take this to the general. It’s Daniel’s preliminary medical reports.”

Nodding, Jack left the infirmary, wishing he was heading down to the gate room to go find Rigar and administer a little justice. He reached the briefing room and found Sam and Hammond waiting for him. Sam looked up, seeming a little perplexed. “Where’s Daniel?” she asked.

Hammond glanced at the door Jack was closing behind him. “Yes, colonel, where is Dr. Jackson?”

Jack walked over to the table and put the medical file down in front of him. “He’s still in the infirmary,” he said. Sam opened her mouth, then closed it again, her eyes wide. “And he’s going to be there for a while. At the moment, he’s confined to bed.”

“The burns were that bad?” Sam asked.

Hammond raised an eyebrow at the question, then looked up at Jack. “Is it serious?” Jack sat down and tapped the table in front of him, focused on the grain pattern of the wood. He didn’t quite know how to express this. “Colonel?” Hammond prompted.

Jack looked up. “He was raped, sir,” he said bluntly. Hammond’s face went blank with shock.

There was dead silence for a moment, then Sam rose from her chair as if propelled. “Son of a bitch!” she yelled, slamming her fists down on the table. A little startled, Jack looked into her furious face.

“Not that I don’t agree with the sentiment, major,” Hammond said. “But . . . could you sit down?”

She seemed to notice suddenly that she was standing and sat back down. “Are we going back?” she demanded.

Jack wasn’t sure what to say. He wasn’t used to violently impulsive behavior on Sam’s part. She was generally the one who reined him in. He looked at the general for guidance, but Hammond had opened the file and was scanning it. “Eight separate electrical burns,” the general said after a moment. “Of varying degrees of severity.”

Sam’s fists, which were resting on the table in front of her, clenched tighter.

“I didn’t count them,” Jack said. “But the bastard who was holding him had him stripped naked and kept hitting him with one of those shock sticks he was using on all of us. The ones we brought back with us, in fact.’

Sam closed her eyes, her face twisted with rage. Hammond looked up from the file again. “Digital penetration,” he said. Sam flinched, her hands coming up to cover her face.

“That doesn’t make it not rape,” Jack replied sharply.

“I didn’t say otherwise,” Hammond said calmly. “I take it you spoke with Dr. Jackson?” Jack nodded. “Did he tell you what happened?”

Jack nodded again and said, “So, sir, do you want me to start at the beginning or with what happened to Daniel?”

“The beginning,” Hammond replied. So Jack started out with their arrival and capture, explained about the first separation, when Rigar had taken each of them off for a short time to be questioned individually. He paused briefly while Sam tersely described her own solo experience. Then, when he had reached that point in the narrative, he began to explain the events Daniel had described.

Sam just sat there fuming more and more as he told them what Daniel had told him. Hammond’s scowl grew darker, and he kept glancing down at the file in front of him. As Jack drew towards the end, the general reached out and turned the page, revealing a lurid color photograph of the four burns on Daniel’s back. Jack bit off a startled curse. He hadn’t seen any of the injuries, just heard about them, and having a visual made the bile in his gut churn even more nauseously.

Sam’s eyes snapped to the image as well and she turned first white with shock and then red with fury. “We have to go back, sir,” she said firmly.

“You’re quite right,” Hammond said. Jack raised his eyebrows, then felt a little bit of glee kick in at the thought of getting back some of their own. “But no one on SG-1 will be going, and it will not be about revenge.” Jack was startled to see Sam nearly forget herself and utter a protest. “From your descriptions of these people, we simply can’t afford to leave a naquadah generator in their possession. They have the technology to understand the potential it has.”

“But sir!” Sam said. “We --”

“Have just returned from being tortured by these people,” Hammond said, shaking his head. “I’ve recalled SG-4 and SG-6 from their leaves, and SG-10 is already on base. They will be going through tomorrow at 0900 hours. While either of you might persuade Dr. Fraiser to declare you fit in time, your team is only at half strength at the moment and I would not approve your inclusion.” He looked at each of them. “Is there anything either of you can tell me that would help them with their mission?”

“Kill the bastards,” Jack said savagely.

“Something constructive?” Hammond said.

“That is constructive!” Jack replied. Then he closed his eyes and mastered himself. “I’m sorry, sir, but Daniel’s in there acting like he thinks he’s some kind of wuss for being upset about this, and God knows when it’s going to hit him. Meanwhile, Teal’c’s down until Junior gets his act together. It’s making me a little . . .”

“I know, colonel,” Hammond replied with understanding.

Sam was glaring at the table but she swallowed and said, “These are religious fanatics, sir, who have been fighting a war for generations. They viewed us as representatives of the enemy. I don’t know if they’re the kind of lunatics who think they go to a better spot in heaven if they kill enough bad guys, but --”

“Yeah, that’s really more Daniel’s department,” Jack said.

“Do you think he’s up to being asked, colonel?”

“I don’t know.” Jack shrugged. “Probably. You’d better ask Dr. Fraiser.”

Hammond picked up his phone and called the infirmary. He spoke briefly to her, but it became clear that she was not interested in having any further debriefing take place in her infirmary today. Hammond hung up the phone and looked at Sam and Jack. “She says visitors are fine, but no more questions.” Sam was on her feet instantly. Then she looked over towards the general apologetically. “Dismissed,” he said.

Jack was on her heels but Hammond spoke before he got out the door. “Jack?”

Startled by the familiar address, O’Neill turned to face his commanding officer. “General?”

“Are you okay, son?”

He gave the general a sardonic look. “I’m not the one you should be asking that question, sir,” he said. “Daniel’s the one who --”

“Jack.” The word was said quietly with gentle remonstrance. Hammond shut the door. “I know how it feels to have a mission I’m commanding go wrong.”

“Wrong,” Jack repeated. “Wrong?” He found that he was shaking. “I was twenty yards away at most when this happened, sir. And I had no idea it was happening. No clue anything happened at all until Daniel told me.”

“There was nothing you could have done, Jack” Hammond said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “From what you told me, you did everything exactly right.”

Jack shook his head. “Daniel, he’s . . . You know, when we run up against alien military folks, they can tell that Daniel isn’t a soldier, even if the rest of us are. He may wear the uniform, he may carry the weapons we make him carry, but . . .”

“I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at, colonel,” Hammond said.

Jack looked down, recalling something he hadn’t mentioned in the debriefing. “You should have seen the look on that Parey woman’s face as she brought those guys in to take Daniel to . . . to that. She knew damned well that I was the commanding officer, that I should be taking the heat.” She’d seemed almost accusatory, Jack remembered. Like she wanted to know why Jack had brought a man like that into danger like this.

“Are you saying that Rigar saw Dr. Jackson as a weak link, somehow, because he’s a civilian?”

“I don’t know, sir,” Jack said.

Hammond’s brows drew together. “Are you saying that you think Jackson’s a weak link?”

Jack’s head whipped up and he glared at the older man. “Hell, no!” Hammond raised an eyebrow and Jack saw that the question hadn’t been a dig at Daniel, and he grimaced at his own overreaction. “I’d trust Daniel with my life, sir, it’s not that. I just wonder sometimes if I’m doing enough to protect him. That’s all.” Jack shook his head. “He sticks out like a sore thumb. Unmilitary as all hell, doesn’t take orders . . .”

“More than one person has suggested that Dr. Jackson doesn’t belong on a military team,” Hammond said. “Teal’c may not be a member of the United States armed forces, but he is a soldier, and he has accepted your command. When ordered to take the commands of others, he will do so. Dr. Jackson . . .”

“Without Daniel, everyone on SG-1 would be dead several times over,” Jack snapped. “I’m not saying I don’t think he belongs. If you gave me just a well-trained military linguist as my fourth, we wouldn’t have the success rate we have, sir. Daniel is unique. I just wish I knew how to minimize the risks he takes. He’s not like the rest of us, isn’t prepared to be a prisoner of war. I mean, he’s attended the seminars and the trainings . . . but it’s not the same.” Hammond was watching him, listening, but Jack knew he wasn’t getting his point across. “The very attributes that make Daniel vital to a first contact team set him up for things like what just happened to him, and amplify the consequences somehow.”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“He’s . . .” Jack scowled. “He’s a very gentle man, sir, and he believes the best about everyone. He leaps forward to talk to the people we meet not just because it’s his job but because he’s eager to know them, to know the wonderful and exciting things he can learn about their cultures.”

“True.”

“And seven out of ten times, that’s enough to keep him from getting walloped, even by the ones who find him annoying. They sense the innocence, the sincerity. It’s just those other three that worry me. When we run into sadists like Rigar, it’s as if they know to head straight to Daniel as the one who will be the easiest to hurt and hurt badly.”

“It may be more than that, colonel,” Hammond said.

“What do you mean?”

“They may recognize that by hurting Dr. Jackson, they’ll hurt the rest of you all the more.”

Jack grimaced. “And isn’t that the truth. Look, general, I’d better go see how he is.”


	6. Chapter 6

Daniel hated being fussed over. Not only did it make him feel about ten years old, in circumstances like this it seemed to emphasize the wretchedness of what had happened.

The moment Sam walked in, Daniel could see that she’d come straight from the debriefing. Her face had that special ‘Daniel’s been damaged’ expression, the one she wore when she was worried that he might not bounce back from this one.

“How are you, Daniel?” she asked, walking up and gently stroking the arm that was accessible. Her voice was rich with sympathy.

“I’m fine,” he said, grinning up at her tightly, and he could see her worry go a notch higher. Why couldn’t people ever just take him at his word? “Just working on translating the text of that bowl Camden brought back from M3T-33H.” She smiled down at him, brimming with anxious compassion. Any minute now she’d ask him if he wanted to talk about it, which he didn’t, or if he needed anything. Maybe he could head her off. “It’s proving very elusive,” he said. “Some of the words seem very straightforward, but in context they don’t make much sense. I’m still trying to determine if it’s some kind of extended metaphor or an actual shift in meaning.”

She looked down at him for a long moment, clearly somewhat taken aback. “Which seems more likely?” she asked slowly, settling down on the chair beside the bed.

“Hard to say,” Daniel replied. “The shift in meaning would be an incredibly dramatic one, and while that does happen on occasion, I’m thinking it might be a little too much. As a metaphor it’s a little obscure, though, so I’m beginning to wonder if maybe the words haven’t had a slight shift in meaning that makes the metaphor more accessible. The trouble is, without clear references, that could be impossible to tell for certain.” He grimaced with frustration, and opened his mouth to go on.

“Are you in pain?” she asked immediately, before he could speak.

He blinked at her in startlement. “I need more samples of this text,” he said slowly. “And not really. Janet’s taken pretty good care of that.”

“Oh.” Sam bit her lip.

“Sam, listen to me,” Daniel said, reflecting that this was why he’d wanted to go home. If he put himself out of reach, this outpouring of sympathy would dry up before he got back. “I’m fine. Seriously. I just really want more samples of this writing, but they didn’t bring anything else back with them.”

She seemed to take hold of herself. “Was there more there?”

“The folks who brought this down for me didn’t bring me the report, unfortunately,” Daniel said. “So I’ve been trying to remember all the details of a report I only scanned.”

“I could get it,” Sam suggested.

“I wasn’t hinting,” he protested.

“Daniel!” she said, giving him a look. “Do I have to wait for you to hint?”

“Well, no.”

“Then hush. While I’m up there, is there anything else you need?”

He listed off a couple of other projects. One thing that was handy about Sam was that she had a better grasp of his organizational strategies than the average infirmary staffer, so it was easier to send her for something and have at least some confidence that she would, one, come back with the right thing and, two, not have disordered his office beyond recall.

Grinning, Sam left and Daniel returned to his contemplation of precisely what the ancient Sumerian word for melon might mean in this context.

* * *

Jack walked into the infirmary to find Daniel alone, which surprised him. Sam had preceded him by a fair amount, yet she wasn’t here. Had Daniel run her off that quickly? The archeologist was hard at work on some project, which didn’t surprise him in the least.

He walked over to the bed, but before he could say anything, Daniel looked up, eyes almost manic with the edges of understanding. “World!” he said. Jack raised his eyebrows and waited. “I think it means ‘world,’ but I have no idea what . . .” Daniel blinked at Jack’s blank face. “Hi, Jack. How’d the debriefing go?”

Jack shrugged. “Hammond’s going to send SG-4, 6 and 10 to fetch back the naquadah reactor if they can.”

Eyebrows raising, Daniel nodded. “I hadn’t thought of that,” he said. “When? Will you and Sam be going?”

“Tomorrow and nope,” Jack replied. “Hammond doesn’t want us getting any nasty ideas about revenge, I don’t think.”

“Revenge? It’s not very us,” Daniel said, looking perplexed. “Why would he think you’d go after revenge?”

Jack stared at him for a moment, more than a little stunned that Daniel didn’t understand. Revenge was sounding mighty sweet at the moment, especially since it was so obvious that Daniel hadn’t even considered it. “Well, it’s a done deal. The general won’t okay us going.”

“I see.” Daniel pursed his lips. “I guess I should express sympathy, but I’m not going to.” Jack chuckled as his friend looked around the infirmary. “Jack, do you suppose you could convince Janet that I should be allowed to leave? I really don’t want to --”

“No, he couldn’t, and he’d be well advised not to even try.” Janet Fraiser walked up with a tray, giving Jack a threatening look that he read without difficulty. “You’re not going anywhere, Daniel, accept it.”

Daniel cast an exasperated, pleading look at the doctor who remained unmoved. She rolled a bed table over and put the tray onto it. “It’s time for you to eat something,” she said. Then she started helping him to shift into a seated position. Daniel grimaced and bit his lip, but he didn’t make any noise through what appeared to be a fairly painful process. Finally, he was sitting, leaning forward to keep his back from touching the bed behind him.

“I’m not in that much pain, Janet,” he said. “And what if someone comes in who really needs the space?”

Fraiser gave him a quelling look. “Do you see the empty beds?”

“Janet,” Daniel begged, eyes wide and innocent. “If I stay here, people will bug me. It’s already started.”

And the absence of Carter was explained, Jack thought. She had annoyed him, so he’d discovered an errand for her. Fraiser looked perplexed and a little concerned. “What are you talking about, Daniel?” she asked, leaning closer.

Briefly, it seemed as if Daniel was going to answer. Jack stood waiting to see how Fraiser would react, but Daniel chickened out. “Nothing, never mind.” Sighing, he started eating.

Sam walked in carrying three files, a report and a cup of coffee. Daniel grinned and Janet turned around. “Daniel, what is this?”

“You told me I could bring some work in,” he said.

“Don’t you think this is a little excessive?” she asked.

He looked at her blankly and Jack mentally congratulated him for the befuddled look on Fraiser’s face. “This should keep me busy for a couple of hours, I think,” Daniel said. Jack kept his expression bland, but Sam was having more trouble. There was an amused grin twitching at the corner of her mouth. Fortunately, Fraiser had her back to the major.

Fraiser pursed her lips, but then her expression softened. “Well, just try to keep it confined to this table, okay? When you’re finished with something, I can have someone run it back to your office for you.”

Daniel blinked at her briefly, and Jack was struck by the sudden realization that this was a ploy. That Daniel was in fact attempting to force Fraiser to release him from the infirmary by making having him there too inconvenient. This should be good -- the irresistible force that was Daniel against the immovable object that was Janet Fraiser. The archeologist looked disappointed and slightly sulky that his attempt hadn’t born immediate fruit.

He glanced over at Sam again, to share the humor of the situation to her, but he found that she was now gazing worriedly at Daniel. Abruptly concerned that he might be missing something, he turned to Daniel and saw that the other man’s expression hadn’t changed significantly.

“Well, just let me know if you start having pain,” Fraiser said. “And eat up.” She walked away and Daniel held out his hand for the coffee. “Wait just a minute,” the doctor said suddenly, returning. “You don’t need coffee.”

“I do,” Daniel protested with wide-eyed alarm.

“Caffeine is not a substitute for either sleep or food,” Fraiser said, taking the mug firmly from Sam.

“Janet!” His voice was pleading. “It’s comfort food. I won’t overdo, I promise.”

Looking very much as if it were against her better judgment, Janet handed over the mug. Privately, Jack thought this was a poor strategic move on Daniel’s part. She now had something she’d given in on, to stave off the guilt. On the other hand, it might set the stage for further concessions. The jury was still out on this one, he decided.

Janet walked away and Daniel savored his coffee before returning to his food. “Do you suppose,” Jack said, looking at it, “that she gives us the food from the commissary to persuade us to get better faster?”

Daniel looked up at him darkly. “She could get rid of me right now if she wanted to.”

Sam looked down at him worriedly. “You need to stay here, Daniel,” she said. “That burn on your back is really bad.”

Caught in mid gulp, Daniel choked. Swallowing the food in his mouth, he looked up at her. “You haven’t seen it.”

Sam turned scarlet and glanced at Jack who really wished she’d keep him out of her flubs. Daniel looked up at him suspiciously. “Your medical file,” he said. “There was a photograph of your back, and Hammond --”

“Great.” Daniel bit his lip, looking quietly furious. “Look, I’d like to get some work done here, if you guys don’t mind.”

“Daniel, I --” Sam started, but their teammate just looked up at her with pursed lips and a raised eyebrow. “I’ll come by later,” she finished.

“Okay,” he said, looking down again at his translation, a clear dismissal. Sam glanced over at Jack, back at Daniel, and then left. After a few minutes, Daniel, without looking up, said, “Is there something you need, Jack?”

“Nope,” he said. “I just thought I’d hang out and --”

“Hang out?” Daniel repeated in a tone that made it sound ridiculous. “I’m sure you’ve got reports to write, and I’m not interested in company right now. If you can’t get Janet to let me out of here, then I’ll see you later, okay?”

That was a low blow. Jack grimaced. “I’ll be in my office, then.” He rested his hand on his friend’s shoulder briefly, and their eyes met for a moment. Daniel was not in a receptive mood, but Jack gave him an apologetic smile. Then he turned and left.

* * *

Daniel had set aside the report on M3T-33H. They might have to go back there at some point to find out more information, but he knew that would be a low priority unless he could point to some military significance. Occasionally he found that necessity extremely frustrating. He wondered if there was some way he could persuade Hammond to let him go there on leave, but he shook his head. He’d require guards, and they wouldn’t be on leave. Damn. Reality reared its ugly head.

Now he was looking at something much more straightforward. A simple tablet in Goa’uld. They needed more people who could translate Goa’uld writing. Between them, Robert Rothman, Teal’c and he could spend eight hours a day for a month and they wouldn’t work through the backlog. Meanwhile, Teal’c had more important things to master, like ordinary Earth customs.

He was writing out the translation when he heard the man beside him stirring. He looked over and saw that Nyan was opening his eyes. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

The alien archeologist’s words were incomprehensible. Daniel turned and stretched up slightly. “Janet, Nyan’s awake.”

She was across the infirmary in a flash, speaking consolingly to the confused and shocky man. Daniel started to lean back, but caught himself before he pressed fabric against the burn on his back. Thinking of the injury just reminded him that while he hadn’t seen it yet, not only had Dr. Fraiser and General Hammond seen it, but so had Sam and Jack. There was no privacy in this life.

When Nyan was calm, Janet left him with the reassurance she’d be right back. The archeologist looked over and said, “Daniel Jackson?”

“How are you feeling, Nyan?”

“My head hurts,” he said. “I do not like being shot at.”

Daniel snorted. “It’s not my favorite thing,” he admitted. “It should pass, though, the headache I mean.”

“That woman,” Nyan said, pointing at Janet, “said she would give me something for the pain.”

“Janet,” Daniel said. “Dr. Fraiser.”

“What part of that is her name?” Nyan asked pathetically.

Daniel smiled. It could be hard to sort out unfamiliar titles, as he well knew. “Janet Fraiser. People here generally have a personal name and a family name. ‘Doctor’ is her title. It indicates a certain level of education, in her case she’s a medical doctor. I’m a doctor as well, of archeology.”

“What should I call her?”

“Dr. Fraiser,” Daniel said. “Here, when we combine a title with a name, we generally drop the personal name.”

“I see.” Nyan gave him a look that might have been a smile if his eyes hadn’t been narrowed with the pain of his headache. “Thank you. Dr. Jackson.”

Janet came back and gave him something that knocked him out again, then she walked over and said, “Time for some more burn cream, Daniel.” She eased him off the bed and got him into the exam room again, where the whole embarrassing process played over again, including the antibiotic ointment. He wanted to say that he could manage it himself, but the burns were really beginning to ache if he moved wrong. Not to mention all the damned bruises.

She started with his back and then had him bend over. To his overwhelming humiliation, he found himself fighting tears again. When she got him turned back around facing her, she let out a muffled exclamation. “Daniel, are you --” Wordlessly he held out his hand for the burn cream and began to treat the front half of his body himself. Once she’d handed it over, she turned away to let him take care of what he could in a modicum of privacy. When he’d pulled on the fresh hospital gown, she turned back towards him. “Daniel, we need to talk.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down. “About what?” Without speaking, she held out a box of tissues, and he snatched one angrily. “I’m fine, Janet,” he said, balling the tissue up in his fist.

“Ignoring this reaction isn’t going to make it go away,” she said softly. “You need to talk.”

“No, I don’t,” he replied stubbornly. “I need to finish translating that tablet, so I can start translating the next one. Maybe your restricting me to the infirmary is a good thing. I might get through some of the backlog I’ve developed.”

“Daniel . . .” she started.

“What do you want me to say, Janet? That I hate this? That it’s humiliating having you rub salve in my . . .” He growled his frustration. “I know all the relevant words, why can’t I bring myself to say any of them?”

“Daniel, this is not an easy thing to cope with,” Janet said.

“It was just torture,” Daniel replied. “I can handle it.”

“I’m not denying that you can handle it.” She put her hand on his arm and squeezed. “But talking about it can help.”

“Janet, however odd you may find it, I don’t particularly want to discuss my mental state with you,” Daniel said, and more words seemed to be propelled out of him by emotions he hadn’t realized he was suppressing. “The last time we talked about my mental state, I wound up in an extremely boring room with very soft walls and big men who pumped large quantities of drugs into my body.” Janet went white and she didn’t seem to have anything to say. “Can I go back to work now?”

“Of course, Daniel,” she said. Very gently, she helped him off the table and then back onto the bed in the infirmary. Then she let him be, for which he was very grateful. He hadn’t realized that there was such a store of anger in him over that incident. Focusing his attention on his work, he managed to blot most everything else out, ignoring the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was very thankful that there seemed to be few injuries to be dealt with today. After a very short time, Janet delivered a box of tissues to his table because his eyes kept watering. He wondered if he’d developed an allergy to the detergent they used in the bed linens.

He’d finally regained control when General Hammond showed up. “How are you feeling, son?”

Daniel looked up. “Achy,” he said. Looking up into the kindly face, he savagely repressed the urge to ask Hammond if he made a practice of showing off photographs of his injured subordinates to anyone who was curious. He knew damned well it wasn’t true, and in fact he was certain it had been an accident. “I’ll live.”

Hammond smiled. “I’m glad to hear it, son. I understand you’re stuck in here for the time being, however.”

Daniel shrugged. He wasn’t asking Hammond to spring him. He wasn’t going to try and put that kind of pressure on Janet after what he’d just said to her. Try as he might, he couldn’t feel guilty for saying it, but he didn’t need to compound it by going over her head with the general.

“Well, let me know if there’s anything you need,” Hammond said.

“I’m fine, general,” Daniel said. “I’m just clearing some of my backlog of translations. If I can get someone to type them up for me, I can have some of these on your desk tomorrow.”

Hammond nodded. “Anything you need, Dr. Jackson.”

Daniel looked up at him for a moment, an idea formulating in the back of his mind. “Anything, sir?”

“Well . . .” Hammond looked somewhat taken aback. Daniel never asked for much, and when he did it was never small. He could see the general feeling cornered.

“Nothing too outrageous, sir,” he said, and Hammond raised an eyebrow. “An assistant.”

“An assistant?” Hammond repeated, looking perplexed. “But Dr. Jackson, I’ve tried to give you an assistant many times in the past, but you’ve always said --”

“Not a military assistant,” Daniel replied. “I was thinking of a more specialized assistant.” Hammond tilted his head. “A man trained in archeology, but in a different discipline than mine. One with an entirely different background than anyone we could ordinarily find.” Hammond nodded. “One who has uncovered a stargate himself, and who already knows about the realities of gate travel.” Daniel glanced over to the bed next to him and the general followed the direction of his gaze. “He can’t go back. They’d do to him what they did to us.”

Hammond nodded. “Or worse.”

“He’s a true scientist, one who doesn’t let his theory get in the way of the facts. And he risked his life to help get us back here, abandoned everything he knows, in fact.” It was something Daniel understood, probably better than anyone else in the program.

Hammond was silent for a moment. “Well, the decision isn’t entirely mine, son, but I will put it to the president and the joint chiefs. It’s not as if exceptions haven’t been made in the past.”

“Thank you sir,” Daniel said. “But really, I’m fine. I’ll just set the things that need to be typed aside so someone can collect them?”

“Very good, son.” Hammond shook his head. “But there’s no need for you to work. You should get some rest.”

Daniel shrugged very gently. “I’d rather do this, general,” Daniel said. “I need something productive to do.”

The general reached out and squeezed Daniel’s shoulder. “I can understand that, son. But don’t feel obligated if you think of something you’d like to do that isn’t work.”

“Yes sir,” Daniel said. He wasn’t sure what the general thought he’d do.

“I’ll stop by tomorrow to see how you are.”

“Thank you.” Daniel watched him go, then got back to work. An airman came by about a quarter of an hour later and took the three finished translations away with him.


	7. Chapter 7

There was a light tapping on Jack’s office door, which surprised him because the door wasn’t closed. He looked up to find General Hammond standing outside. “Come in, sir,” he said, standing up.

Hammond walked in and shut the door behind him. He sat down in the little five-minute chair Jack had sitting by his desk. Jack spent very little time actually in his office, so he hadn’t done much to make it more appealing. “I just came from visiting Dr. Jackson,” Hammond said without prelude. “I was surprised to find him alone.”

“You know Daniel, sir, he hates to show weakness in front of people. He chased us all out.”

Hammond nodded slowly and looked down at his hands. “I see. Well, ordinarily I would never interfere. But under the circumstances . . .” The general trailed off, and Jack wondered what he was thinking but didn’t speak because he didn’t want to interrupt. “I haven’t told you this, Jack, I want that clearly understood.”

“Of course, sir,” Jack said, sitting up straight. What in the . . .

“Unless there is vegetation I am unaware of in the infirmary, Dr. Jackson has almost certainly been crying. I spoke with Dr. Fraiser and she assures me that there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that he’ll talk to her, and even less of one that he’ll talk to Dr. McKenzie.”

Jack nodded slowly. “I’d have to agree about Dr. McKenzie, though I’d think he’d confide in Doc Fraiser.”

Hammond shook his head. “She says she has recent specific evidence that he won’t.” Jack blinked. So Daniel was shutting everyone out. “But I have a feeling that you might be able to get him to open up, and I think he needs to talk about this to someone.”

“Sir, it hasn’t even been a day,” Jack said. “It doesn’t seem like the greatest idea to put pressure on him to talk about it so soon.”

“Maybe not, but I don’t want him left alone for too long right now. At the moment, he seems to be trying to catch up on six months’ translation backlog in an afternoon.”

Jack nodded. He didn’t know why Daniel couldn’t deal with his emotions like any normal guy would. “I’ll do my best, sir.” Punching the wall with a fist was very cathartic. Painful, but cathartic.

“That’s all I can ask, Jack.” The general stood. “Let me know if you’re out of your depth, colonel.”

Hammond left the door open when he went and Jack sat back, contemplating the situation. Daniel was crying, out in the open, in the infirmary. That wasn’t a good sign. He gathered up his work and headed down there. He had a sneaking suspicion that Daniel wouldn’t be thrilled to see him.

When he entered the infirmary, Daniel looked up and scowled, but he didn’t say anything, so Jack just sat down in the chair by the bed and got himself set up to get some work done. There was a box of tissues on the table next to Daniel’s elbow, not an unusual sight for the allergy-ridden archeologist, but with not a plant in sight in the squeaky clean infirmary, Jack had to admit it was more than a little suspicious.

Jack watched Daniel plow through two translations before he finished his own report, but when the airman came to take away the work, he handed off his report as well and said, “So, Daniel, what do you say to a chess game?”

“I’ve got work to do,” Daniel said. “I’ve managed to finish five translations in the past several hours. I don’t want to stop while my momentum’s rolling.”

“Your eyes are getting a bit red.” Handy that Daniel would never willingly admit to crying. “I think you need to stop staring at fuzzy copies and do something else for a while.”

“Jack --” Daniel started, but Jack just raised an eyebrow and stood up.

“I’ll go find a chessboard while you get your stuff put away a little.”

When he came back from the recreation room on the next level, he found that Fraiser had provided Daniel with a little tub to put his work and supplies in. Daniel was scanning one last page as Jack came in, but the raised eyebrow look Jack gave him made him drop it into the tub. “Janet says you can tuck it under the bed,” Daniel said, pointing at the tub.

Jack followed the instructions and then set the chessboard up on the table. Daniel won the first game within ten minutes. He won the second game in fifteen minutes and Jack grimaced.

“You’re not paying attention,” Daniel said.

“Neither are you,” Jack replied. “You could have checkmated me five moves ago.”

Daniel looked at him blankly for a moment, then looked back down at the board, clearly tracing the moves backward. “You’re right,” he said, surprised. “I could have.” He blinked. “I’m not at my best, I guess.”

Jack shrugged. “Who would be?” They were silent for a moment, then Jack felt around in his jacket pocket. “Gin?” he asked, pulling out a deck of cards.

Daniel opened his mouth to answer, but then his eyes went wide and he looked deeply alarmed. His eyes flashed to Jack’s right shoulder, and Jack automatically looked behind him. “You okay, Daniel?”

The question seemed to pull the other man out of whatever reaction he was having. “Um . . . yeah, Jack. I’m fine.”

“Fine?” Jack repeated and Daniel nodded. “Could you define that word for me, Daniel?”

His friend raised an eyebrow, looking more than a little suspicious. “Why?”

“Humor me.” Jack opened the box and pulled the cards out.

“It depends on the context,” Daniel said, giving him an irritated look.

“Well, how about in this context.” Jack pulled the jokers out of the deck and tossed them back into the box.

Daniel shrugged. “Good. Okay. No problems.”

Jack nodded, splitting the cards into two even piles and shuffling.. “And that’s how you’d describe yourself right now. No problems?”

Glaring, Daniel said, “What’s the point of this?”

“The point is, why are you telling me you’re fine when you’re not?”

“Who says I’m not?” Daniel demanded.

Jack tapped the two piles of cards together along the long edges to even them out and then shuffled again. “Well, it’s just a guess, but you do have burns all over your torso, not to mention other things. I’d say that qualifies as ‘not fine’ in most people’s books.”

“Whatever, Jack. I think those cards are pretty mixed up by now. Why don’t you deal?”

Nodding, Jack started to deal. They played a couple of games, and Daniel played worse than he usually did.  “You know, Daniel, it’s okay not to be fine,” Jack said after a while.

“Jack, I am not talking about this right now,” Daniel said. “If you want to play a game, let’s play a game. But don’t . . .” He paused seeming at a loss for words. “Just don’t.”

Jack bit his lip and returned to the game. Pushing more now would not help. In fact, it would most likely have a very negative effect. They kept playing until Daniel started yawning. It wasn’t much past eight, but Jack was beginning to feel pretty gone himself. It had been a very full day.

“I think you need to lie down, Daniel,” Jack said. Looking sour, Daniel agreed, and Jack helped him into a more comfortable position for sleeping. Fraiser walked over and gave Daniel his final dose of meds for the evening and Jack kept an eye on him till his eyes closed and stayed that way.

Fraiser was off duty by seven o’clock most nights, but when things like this happened, she never seemed to go home. Jack walked into her office to find that she was sitting at her desk, eyes set deeper in their sockets than usual. Clearly this was hitting her hard, probably not least because she was so sure Daniel wouldn’t talk to her about it except in a purely medical sense. He wondered why that was, but figured it wasn’t really his business.

“Yes, colonel?” Fraiser asked. Jack took that for an invitation and shut the door behind him. “How can I help you?”

“You know General Hammond wants me to talk to Daniel about what happened?” he asked and she nodded. “Well, I’m pretty certain he’s not going to talk to anyone about anything in here. Not where anyone on the staff could hear, not where other patients could hear. I know you want to keep him here, and it’s obvious that he needs treatment he can’t manage on his own, but is there some way we could move him someplace a little less public during the day at least?”

“I’m way ahead of you, colonel,” Fraiser said. “Tomorrow I’m shifting him to that little room at the other end of the infirmary, away from the other beds, outside the normal movements of the staff. It’s going to make getting him into the exam room for his treatments a little longer walk, but he won’t be out there in the middle of everything, which I think he’ll prefer.”

“True,” Jack said, sighing. He knew that Daniel would _prefer_ to be heading home, but that really wasn’t an option. “So, then, you mind if I doss here tonight? Just . . .” He shrugged.

“It’s fine with me, colonel. Just be ready to clear out of the way if any real wounded come in.”

Nodding, he left her office and went back out into the infirmary. Taking off his shoes and jacket, Jack climbed onto the bed next to Daniel’s and closed his eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

Jack woke up to find an alert Daniel Jackson staring at him from the next bed where he was sitting up. There was a crease between his brows that spoke of pain he wasn’t acknowledging, but he didn’t seem unduly uncomfortable. “Good morning, Jack,” he said. “Care to share why you decided to stay here last night?”

Sitting up and scratching his head, Jack stifled a yawn. “Would you believe that Dr. Fraiser insisted?” he asked.

“Since she told me otherwise, no, I don’t think I would.”

“Well, that was helpful of her.”

“She did say you made a valiant effort to get me moved out of the infirmary, but failed.”

Jack nodded. “I’ll be back in a few,” he said, glancing at his watch. “Hey, what are you doing awake so early?”

“Rolled over on my back,” Daniel said.

“Ouch.” Jack got to his feet, pulling on his boots.

“That’s what I said. I won’t be here when you get back. Janet seemed to think you’d be a little alarmed if you woke up to find this bed empty, so she wanted to wait to move me till you woke up.” Daniel looked dour, as if he thought Fraiser was being over-solicitous.

She was right, though, Jack thought. If he’d awoken to find Daniel moved, he would have freaked out despite knowing that Fraiser planned to move him. “I’m going to go get a shower and a change of clothes.”

That took him no more than twenty minutes at the pace he set, and he made it back to the infirmary to find that Daniel still hadn’t emerged from the treatment room. He shifted Daniel’s belongings out of the main room and into the room Fraiser had said she was moving him into. He settled himself with some of his own work and waited.

When Daniel turned up a couple of minutes later, Jack raised his eyebrows. Fraiser was with him, and she looked both grim and sympathetic. And Daniel looked teary-eyed.

Jack surged to his feet. “What the hell happened?” he demanded, glaring at the doctor.

Daniel flushed and held up a hand. “Don’t blame Janet, Jack. I’m just being an idiot.”

Frustrated, not sure how to read this, Jack said, “You’re often an idiot, Daniel, but you don’t usually cry.”

“I’m not crying,” Daniel said with palpable untruth. “And I’m not an idiot.”

“Okay, so long as we’ve got that settled,” Jack said. “I think we’d better get you into bed.”

Fraiser stuck around long enough to make sure that Daniel was settled comfortably, then she vanished. Daniel looked around. “So, what’s the purpose of this move? Am I expected to blow up at any second and should therefore be moved as far away from other people as possible?”

“No, it’s more because you expressed a wish for more privacy than can be had back that way,” Jack said, gesturing towards the largest rooms of the infirmary.

“So this is a sop to my wanting to go home?” Daniel asked for clarification. “Because if it is, it sucks. I’d rather be home.”

“If I could swing it, I would,” Jack said.

“Right,” Daniel said. “Anyway, I should get some work done.”

“You know, we’ve both been ordered to rest. So has Sam for all the good it’s done.”

Daniel shrugged and hissed at the pain caused by the injudicious movement. “She wasn’t wrong. It’s worse today than it was yesterday.”

“That’s the way with burns,” Jack said.

Scowling, Daniel said, “Some of us just like our jobs enough that all we can think to do when we have free time is our jobs.”

Jack shook his head and considered what he knew of Daniel’s background. “And some of us just never got taught how to take time off.”

“Well, Jack, the kinds of things you do on your time off are off limits to me right now,” Daniel said, pulling out the document he’d been looking at the night before.

Jack decided to wait a bit before he started pushing. They had breakfast, still working, and Daniel finished a multi-page tablet by around ten-thirty. Jack stood up and put his hand down on the stack of papers that Daniel had had brought to him. “Daniel, we need to talk.”

“About what, Jack?”

“Why were you crying earlier?”

Daniel flushed, then went white. “I thought we established that I wasn’t,” he said, not meeting Jack’s eyes.

“We established that you aren’t an idiot. So what was up?”

The other man looked away. “It doesn’t matter, Jack.”

“It does.”

“It’s nothing Janet did, nothing that she didn’t have to do, anyway.”

Jack took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Daniel, could you try answering the question as asked?”

Daniel closed his eyes. “Jack, think about it. A man, wearing rubber gloves, shoved his thumb . . . he . . . well, there is damage. Nothing very severe, but damage nonetheless.”

“Yeah.”

“So, my doctor thinks that there’s some chance of infection, especially given the location of the injuries, so she’s putting antibiotic ointment on them, wearing rubber gloves, since between the burns, the bruises and the strained muscles, I can’t reach. It’s . . . it’s not fun.”

Jack nodded. “I can see that it wouldn’t be.”

“And that’s it. She can’t not do it, and I can’t seem to help reacting like a moron. End of story.”

“There’s nothing moronic about it,” Jack said. “It’s a perfectly natural reaction to what happened to you.”

“Yeah, and it’s all Janet’s fault, so by all means, I should take it out on her.” Daniel’s eyes were inwardly turned, and Jack could see frustration and anger and guilt commingled in his expression. He waited, figuring that Daniel’s emotions would churn words out sooner or later. In this instance he was proven wrong. The archeologist remained silent, staring at the paperwork Jack was holding down with his hand. Jack picked up the tub and shoved it under the bed, then pulled a chair up and sat down. “What are you doing?” Daniel demanded.

“Removing temptation,” Jack said. “Daniel, we need to talk, because this is making you miserable.”

“And talking is going to make me un-miserable?” Daniel asked skeptically.

Jack shrugged. “It could,” he said.

“Which must be why you do so much of it,” the archeologist said scathingly. “When was the last time you ever talked to anyone?” Jack opened his mouth, but Daniel held up his hand. “No, wait, I know this one.” Daniel gave him a tight, less than friendly grin. “The night I came back from Abydos. What’s that, nearly four years ago?”

“That’s different, Daniel,” Jack said, trying to be reasonable.

“No, it isn’t.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Is.”

“Isn’t.”

“Is!”

“How is it different, Jack?” Daniel demanded. “In what way is it not relevant to this conversation that you never discuss your problems with anybody?”

“I haven’t been raped in the last four years.”

* * *

Daniel felt as if he’d been struck in the face without warning or provocation by someone he’d always considered a friend. Raped. Now that word was out there, on the table between them, and Daniel didn’t want it there.

He cleared his throat and turned his eyes away from Jack’s. “Check any dictionary, Jack. Rape isn’t something that happens to men.”

Jack was silent for a long moment, and Daniel finally turned back to look at him. “So,” Jack said conversationally, “when I was sexually assaulted in prison fifteen years ago, that wasn’t rape?”

The calm, reasonable expression on Jack’s face as he asked this question, as he opened the door on an aspect of his past that he had never shared, knocked Daniel’s feet out from under him and shredded his defenses like tissue paper.

* * *

Jack hadn’t meant to be quite so blunt, but Daniel could build walls of words around himself that Jack could never penetrate. He didn’t have the right ammunition to breach them once they were up, so a good solid grenade hit to them before they were properly set was necessary. He hated himself for the stunned, horrified look on Daniel’s face, the stumbling, desperate apology, but the tears that followed were a badly needed catharsis.

Heedless of the pain he had to be causing himself, Daniel wrapped his arms around his chest and hugged himself tightly, tears streaming down his face as he babbled apologies that were now completely incomprehensible. Jack got up from the chair as soon as his friend’s tears started and hesitated at the bedside. Where could he touch the man that wouldn’t hurt him?

Recalling the photo, Jack gingerly put his left arm around Daniel’s back, resting his hand on Daniel’s right shoulder blade, not touching anywhere else. He gently pulled Daniel forward, placing his other hand on the other man’s head, guiding him to lay it on Jack’s shoulder.

There they stayed for a long time, Jack murmuring soothing promises about the future, Daniel continuing to babble apologies. Jack had given up on trying to tell him it was all right, that he hadn’t known and he hadn’t hurt Jack by what he’d said. It had become clear quickly that Daniel wasn’t hearing a word.

Janet came in after about ten minutes, her eyes widened, then she backed out again without saying anything. Eventually Daniel’s tears seemed to dry up, and the younger man stiffened. Jack ruffled his hair, then released him very gently, trying to keep from giving him physical pain.

“Sorry, Jack,” Daniel said, thickly congested.

“For what?”

Daniel looked up at him suspiciously, as if wondering why he’d be asking so stupid a question. “For saying . . . for what I . . . for being such a jerk as to --”

Jack shook his head. “You weren’t a jerk, and it’s okay,” he said. “You didn’t know, and --”

“I was too wrapped up in myself to --”

“Daniel, you’re entitled at the moment. This is on the list of things that you’re allowed to be selfish about.”

Daniel shook his head, wrapping himself more tightly in his own arms. “What you went through had to be worse,” he said. “I mean --”

“Different,” Jack said. Daniel gave him a skeptical look. “Okay, it was pretty awful, but that isn’t the point. What happened to you is hellish, and you can’t judge your own reactions by mine. What happened to me isn’t what happened to you, and you can only react to your own experiences.”

“But --”

“But nothing,” Jack said firmly. “Don’t try to analyze yourself into anything. Rigar hurt you, and hurt you badly, and he did it on purpose with full knowledge of what he was doing.” Daniel shuddered. Jack put a hand on his arm and squeezed. “You will get past it, though.”

Daniel let out a mirthless snort. “Oh, I know I will,” he said. “It’s my specialty, getting past things, I’m just not used to doing it with help.”

Jack gazed into the other man’s face and realized that he might have made a bad mistake. After Sha’re’s death, they had all tried in various ways to offer Daniel comfort, but he hadn’t seemed interested, and Jack had finally decided that Daniel had already done his grieving, during the search, during the years without her. His friend’s focus had been so firmly on the Harcesis since then that Jack hadn’t given Daniel’s grief a second thought in weeks.

“God, Daniel, I’m sorry,” he said without thinking.

The other man looked surprised. “What for?”

“For not paying enough attention.”

Daniel shook his head. “You didn’t do anything, Jack,” he said.

“Exactly,” Jack said. “I didn’t do anything. We’re friends, Daniel. Friends help each other through crap like this.”

The other man looked utterly perplexed. “You are helping, Jack. Isn’t that the point of this?” He made a vague sort of gesture that took in the pair of them.

Jack took hold of himself. “You shouldn’t ever have to deal with grief and pain alone when you have friends around you, Daniel, that’s all I mean. And you shouldn’t have to ask.”

Daniel bit his lips, and was silent for a moment, and to Jack’s relief, the tightly wound arms relaxed from his torso. Daniel let out a mild hiss, acknowledging the pain he’d caused himself. After a moment, he looked up and said, “Thanks, Jack.” He looked away for a second. “So, now what? I got your uniform all wet, we’ve talked about more personal stuff than either of us has in four years, and I’m stuffed up worse than I usually am in a field full of poppies. What now?”

Jack stood up straight. “Pie.”

“Pie?” Daniel repeated, looking baffled.

“It is commonly acknowledged that pie is comfort food.”

Daniel shook his head, an unwilling grin crossing his face. “That’s caffeine, Jack.”

Shaking his head sententiously, Jack said, “Pie, Daniel. Listen to me. Pie is comfort food. Pie, cake, biscuits and gravy, chicken and dumplings. But definitely pie.”

Daniel gave him a sardonic look. “Fine, Jack. Bring me a coffee and some pie, and we’ll see.”

When Fraiser came in a half hour later, she stared in shock, and Jack looked up at her innocently. He’d thought himself quite fortunate that she hadn’t been in range when he’d returned to the infirmary. As her eyes took in the empty plates and the three or four pairs of different kinds of pie sitting on Daniel’s bed table, they widened till Jack thought they would pop right out of her face. They narrowed again when she caught sight of the carafe of coffee, but she didn’t say anything.

Daniel looked down at the half-eaten cherry pie in his hand, put the plate down and picked up a plate of apple. He held it out towards Fraiser with an odd, beseeching look in his eyes. “Pie?” he suggested. The doctor opened her mouth, then paused. She bit her lip, looking uncomfortable. “Come on, Janet. A piece of pie between friends.”

Jack could see the decision made in Janet’s eyes, in her whole posture. She walked over, snagged one of the chairs from across the room and sat down, taking the piece of apple pie Daniel handed her. There was a strong undercurrent of emotion here, but Jack didn’t have enough information to understand it. He shrugged internally. It probably wasn’t any of his business anyway. He picked up the remaining piece of apple pie and took a bite.

Daniel was talking. It was a start.


	9. Chapter 9

Sam checked over the naquadah reactor 4, 6 and 10 had brought back from P2X-416. It didn’t appear to be missing anything important, which suggested that the Bedrosians hadn’t managed to pull it apart yet. According to Colonel Jarvis of SG-6, the whole camp where they had been kept was still intact, but the SG teams had managed to retrieve most of their equipment, including the naquadah reactor and the MALP.

She straightened up and turned to General Hammond. “It’s all here, sir, and in working order.”

“Good,” Hammond said with relief.

Sgt. Siler stood up from the pile of parts on the floor. “I think most of the pieces that have been removed from the MALP are here, and anything that isn’t has no real significance. Just a few housings and screws.”

“Glad to hear it. So our footprint on that planet has been reduced to not much more than a few scraps of metal and a Sig P220.”

Sam sighed, reassured. “And given their relative level of technology, I sincerely doubt that a pistol is going to make all that much of a difference.” Hammond nodded. “Were there any casualties, sir?”

“A couple of our men were hit with those shock weapons, but no one seems to be seriously injured. I haven’t heard anything from Dr. Fraiser yet, at any rate.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“There will be a debriefing in two hours. I want you and Colonel O’Neill there.”

“Yes, sir,” Sam said. Nodding, Hammond left, and Sam gave Siler a quick nod and went to the infirmary where she was reasonably certain she’d find Colonel O’Neill. She stopped briefly at the isolation room where Teal’c was still being treated. Junior was taking longer to heal than they’d expected, but Janet seemed confident that Teal’c would be fine.

Teal’c was sleeping comfortably, so Sam headed on into the infirmary where there were relays of nurses examining the teams that had just returned. She made her way through into the back room where Daniel was. The colonel and he were working at their separate tasks, and she walked in. “Nearly everything was retrieved,” she said, pulling a chair over.

Daniel looked up and smiled at her, and his expression was freer than she’d seen it since they’d been captured by the Bedrosians. “And no serious injuries, from what Jack got out of Janet.”

Sam nodded. “Apart from some housings from the MALP, the only thing left behind was my P-220, sir, so we’re in pretty good shape.”

“That’s good to hear,” O’Neill said. “Any other news?” he asked hopefully, and she knew he was wondering about casualties on the other side of the conflict.

“Nothing yet, sir,” she said. “But General Hammond wants us to join the debriefing in two hours.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “So, I guess I’d better get some clothes,” he said, leaning towards the edge of the bed.

“Nice try, Daniel,” the colonel said. “Don’t make me get Dr. Fraiser.”

Giving the colonel a sour look, Daniel subsided. A glint in his eye, he said, “Does that mean you’re actually going to leave me alone for the length of the briefing? I might be able to get some work done then.”

Jack gave Daniel a mock-glare, and Sam grinned to see the two of them so much back to normal. Yesterday’s quiet, withdrawn Daniel had been nerve-wracking, and the angry Daniel who’d been so annoyed about the photograph had been gut-wrenching. If the archeologist was up to teasing their CO now, though, he couldn’t be as badly off as he had been, and if Jack felt comfortable reciprocating, then Daniel had to be on the mend.

“So, Daniel, how are you feeling?”

His eyes grew shadowed briefly, and she cursed herself for asking the worse possible question. Then he started to shrug and winced.

“You’ve got to stop doing that, Daniel,” the colonel said.

Glowering briefly at Jack, Daniel looked up at her. “I’m fine.” She opened her mouth to ask for something a little more specific, but Colonel O’Neill caught her eye and shook his head very slightly. To her surprise, Daniel didn’t even seem to notice. “So, with two of us out of action for a little while at least, what are you working on?”

Sam grimaced. “The dialing program needs some maintenance. There are a couple of glitches that keep turning up and I’ve got to track down what’s causing them.”

“Sounds fun,” Daniel said, giving her a sympathetic look. “Anything dangerous?”

“Not so far,” she said, shaking her head. “Just inconvenient. But the frequency with which the problems are turning up is increasing, so it needs to be dealt with now.”

“Exciting!” Jack said with a grin.

“Oh, yes, sir,” Sam said, glaring at him. He was always either making fun of job or making light of it. “And just what have you got scheduled?”

He pulled a face. “A series of very exciting briefings with some of the new officers.”

Daniel raised his eyebrows. “Briefings?”

Jack nodded glumly. “The memo was on my desk this morning. They include such scintillating topics as offworld MREs, the general iffy-ness of boiling water, alien bedbugs, and the care and feeding of civilian archeologists in the field.”

Sam bit her lips as Daniel’s eyes widened. His eyebrows went up, and he blinked a couple of times before they lowered again and he gave Jack a very dour look. “And General Hammond is under the impression that you’re an expert on this?”

Jack shrugged. “Well, I have had a bit experience, albeit somewhat limited.”

“So is this going to be one of your standard ‘archeologists don’t have the sense God gave a two-year-old’ speeches?”

Jack shook his head. “Nope. I’ve worked with a couple of others since the last time I did this round of talks. Discovered that they’re not all like you.” Sam sat down to watch the show as Daniel glared at Jack. “Rothman, for example, will stop for frequent meals.”

Daniel nodded. “Which he then orders you to get,” he said, giving the colonel a snarky grin.

Jack nodded sagely. “Yes, well, that comes under the heading of How Not to Punch your Archeologist in the Nose.”

Sam couldn’t help it, she let out a giggle. Neither man seemed to notice how much entertainment they were providing, however.

“One of these days you should listen in on my instructions to archeologists who are going out in the field with a military team for the first time,” Daniel said, smirking at the other man.

“Oh really?” Colonel O’Neill tilted his head. “And just what do you tell them?”

“To be aware that the man in charge will probably not listen to one word in ten, to try to keep away from words of more than three syllables to avoid glassy-eyed stares, and when possible, stick to words of two syllables or less.”

“Interesting advice,” Jack said. “Shame you don’t follow it yourself.”

“Yeah, I’m sure there are a few headaches you could have avoided if I’d just assumed you were as dumb as you pretend to be.”

“I don’t pretend to be dumb,” the colonel protested.

“Riiiiiiiiight,” Daniel said, eying Jack knowingly. “At least seventy-five percent of the time when you act all clueless, you know exactly what’s going on.”

Sam could see the colonel didn’t know what to say to that. Agree and he had to admit to his dumb act, disagree and he sounded like an idiot. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Case in point,” Daniel said, gesturing towards Jack with both hands. “You know exactly what I’m talking about, but you just don’t --”

The colonel raised an open hand and closed it. “Bzzt!” he said.

“Jack, you know --”

“Bzz-zzt!” Jack said, shaking his head.

“See, he’s doing it again!” Daniel exclaimed, turning to her for corroboration.

Sam stood up, sensing her cue to leave. “Gotta check with Lt. Grzovik before the briefing,” she said and hastened out of the room.

The infirmary was no longer nearly empty. Nyan was sitting up in his bed, looking somewhat wan and unwell, gazing in perplexity up at the television set that was showing an ancient episode of _The Price is Right._ SG 4, 6 and 10 had clearly been and gone, leaving a lieutenant and a major in their wake. Both soldiers had clearly felt the sting of those shock weapons the Bedrosians used, and were unconscious. Sam glanced over to see Janet in her office. “Teal’c’s okay?” she asked, walking in and sitting down.

Janet looked up from her reports. “Junior’s responding to treatment now,” she said. “I think I can probably get Teal’c out of isolation by tomorrow.”

“Good,” Sam said. “He hates to be in iso.” Glancing towards the back room, she said, “And how about Daniel?”

“Physically, he’s healing normally,” she said, then stood up and walked over to the door, shutting it. Turning her back on the infirmary, she looked down at Sam. “Mentally, I guess we’ll have to rely on Colonel O’Neill,” she added. Her arms were crossed and her eyes were filled with uncertainty.

Sam was startled. Janet might occasionally feel out of her depth with the insane ailments and injuries the SG teams brought in from off world, but Sam had never seen her looking so hesitant, so tentative. “You okay, Janet?”

“I’m not sure,” the doctor said. She walked over and sat back down, fiddling with the pen on her desk. Not looking up, she said, “Did you know that Daniel was still angry with me over the Linvris incident?”

Sam shook his head, surprised. They’d encountered the Linvris and Machello’s Goa’uld killing devices months ago. “I’m sure he’s not,” she said reassuringly. “He hasn’t said anything.”

“Yes,” Janet said, her voice dead. “He has.”

Sam blinked. She didn’t know what to say. “He has?”

“In no uncertain terms.” Janet bit her lip. “I guess it just hasn’t come up in the months since,” she said. “I just wondered if you knew, because it came at me out of the blue, yesterday.”

She shook her head again. “I had no idea, Janet, really. But he doesn’t talk much about that kind of thing, not to me anyway.” She shrugged. “I kind of expected, being the only ‘girl’ in the unit, to be the repository of confidences, you know.” Janet nodded, grimacing slightly. “It’s happened before. Sometimes you wind up being ‘mom’ to an entire unit of guys.”

“I know exactly what you mean.”

“But Jack and Daniel are neither of them given to talking about the things that bug them, and when they do, they talk to each other. I think they must have bonded pretty strongly during that time on Abydos, before the SGC really got started.”

“I can see that,” Janet said, nodding.

“And Teal’c . . . well, Teal’c is Teal’c, and there’s nothing more to say about that.” Sam sighed. “We’re like a really close, really tightly knit family that never talks about anything emotional. Most of the time we don’t need to.”

“Right.”

The were silent for a moment, then Sam tilted her head. “What did he say?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Janet replied, but Sam could see that whatever it was had cut the other woman to the bone. “So, are _you_ still angry with me about it?” Janet asked suddenly.

“Am I?” Sam blinked. It wasn’t a question she’d come prepared to hear or answer. “I -- well -- I don’t know. I don’t think so. Not angry, per se.”

Janet nodded with comprehension, despite the fact that Sam had said nothing meaningful at all. “I see. Well, I guess --”

“I’m not angry, Janet,” Sam said firmly. “I’m not sure what I feel, but it’s not anger.” Janet bit her lip and didn’t say anything as Sam tried to analyze her reactions. “I think . . . I think it’s disappointment. We . . . none of us knew what to make of it. It was scary, seeing him act like that, and he sounded . . . we didn’t know what to think. And you were so damned sure . . . sitting there with McKenzie, what else could we do?”

“All the symptoms were there, and McKenzie had a convincing --”

“But did you even consider whether there might be an external cause? Something that could be identified before . . .” Sam got a grip on herself. “I’m sorry, Janet,” she said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “Maybe I am a little angry. I didn’t realize.” She looked into her friend’s face. “I don’t know that it’s fair, but . . . you didn’t see him in that institution, with those orderlies that were bigger than Teal’c --” Sam broke off. “I think I’d better go,” she said, seeing the other woman’s stunned expression.

Feeling more than a little stunned herself, Sam went back to her office and stared unseeingly at the reams of printouts she had to go over looking for the bug that was causing the difficulties in the dialing program.

It hardly seemed fair to spring this emotional backlash on Janet after all this time, but damnit, she had asked. Sam just hoped, devoutly, that she wouldn’t ask Jack. If Sam still harbored resentment about that incident, then she didn’t want to see what Jack might unleash.


	10. Chapter 10

Colonel Jarvis of SG-6 turned the corner just as the elevator doors started to close. Jack reached out and pressed the door open button. Jarvis put on a slight burst of speed and joined him. “Thanks, Jack,” he said.

“No problem, Steve.” Jack stood in the corner silently for a moment, then said, “Glad to hear your mission on P2X-416 was a success, colonel.”

Jarvis nodded. “I’m sorry you guys had to go through so much crap,” he said. “Hey, Hammond told us to watch out in particular for a guy with a limp, name of Rigar?” Jack nodded, tilting his head. “Thought you might like to know. He’s dead.”

“You’re sure?”

“Took a couple of rounds in the head.”

Jack blinked a couple of times. Dead. The bastard was dead. There was a burning sense of satisfaction in him at the thought, marred only by the fact that he hadn’t been there, hadn’t fired the fatal shot. Abruptly, he wondered how Daniel would react. “Thanks, Jarvis,” he said, giving the other man a grim smile. “I needed to know that.”

Jarvis nodded. “I figured as much. So, was he the one?” Jack blinked again, uncertain what the other colonel meant. “I mean, Hammond wasn’t too specific, but he warned us that . . . well, it was pretty obvious that something vicious happened to Dr. Jackson. So, was he the one?”

He fixed Jarvis with a solid look. “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” he said, knowing the other officer well enough to be certain he would understand.

Jarvis nodded again, not speaking, and they both turned to face the doors. The elevator slid to a halt on their floor. Just before the doors opened, Jack spoke quietly. “Thanks, Steve,” he said. The other man acknowledged the words with the slightest of nods and they went out into the hallway.

Sam came in shortly before the debriefing started, and he reached out and wrote the words, “Rigar is dead,” on the notepad in front of him. Tapping her lightly, he gestured with his eyes. She read the words, nodded once and looked at the general, who was entering at that moment. Jack tore the paper off the pad and crumpled it in his hand just as the room started to quiet.

The briefing was short, sweet and to the point. The mission had been successful with a minimum of casualties. Vengeance had been achieved despite the fact that no one was calling it that. Concern was expressed by the other team regarding the missing members of SG-1, and as Sam talked about Daniel, Jack saw signs of a small grin on a face that he thought he might have to wipe off sooner or later. Someone evidently thought that what had happened to Daniel was funny.

Jack was fully prepared to take Major Grady aside and whisper a few words of caution or maybe even threat into his ear, but the man’s own CO, Colonel Miller, took him by the arm after the meeting.

He decided to let Miller handle things for now, but he would keep an unobtrusive eye on Grady for the time being. Jack went back to the infirmary and his notes for the briefings he would be giving the following week. He hated this part of his job.

With most programs, there would be an established cadre of experienced senior officers in place at the beginning, which would then be augmented by junior officers rising as attrition gradually thinned the ranks of their seniors.

Not so with the SGC.

To start with, when the program began, after the second Abydos mission, there were only four military officers that had ever been though the stargate. One of those died as a result of the first mission. Not one of those four was above the rank of colonel. This does not constitute a cadre of seasoned officers.

Then it turns out that not everyone is cut out for visiting alien worlds where you never know if you’re going to run into hostile enemies or your new best friend. The galaxy was a broader field than any of them had ever expected to be facing, and some people just couldn’t take the heat. Unfortunately, most often that meant they came back in pieces or didn’t come back at all. They _were_ getting better at choosing personnel, but the very nature of the project and the top level security required sharply limited the pool of candidates. The men and women they got were the best of the best in a lot of ways, but Jack couldn’t help thinking that if they’d used the same selection criteria four years before, Daniel Jackson would never have made the cut. And then where would they all be?

The Goa’uld just complicated things. Simple exploration was hazardous enough. Add to that a ruthless and cunning enemy in a secret and deadly war, and you had all the ingredients for disaster.

As a consequence, it was likely that half to two-thirds of the earnest, eager faces he was going to be speaking to wouldn’t survive the year.

He wondered how Daniel did it. The archeologists had a slightly higher survival rate, being civilians they tended to be in protected positions, but there were a lot fewer of them, and Daniel worked much more closely with them than Jack did with the other soldiers on the base.

When Jack arrived back at the infirmary, Daniel was curled up on his side, fast asleep. He looked like a little kid sometimes when he slept, despite the stubble. Sighing, Jack sat down and started to put together outlines for his briefings. It didn’t take much effort, really, he just had to make lists of what he needed to cover so he didn’t forget any of it.

He was just finishing the last of his lists and considering whether or not to wake Daniel since it was coming up on dinnertime when the object of his speculation said, “Have I grown an extra ear, Jack?”

“What?” Jack shook his head. He’d been staring at Daniel, and evidently the man had awakened and noticed. “Sorry, I must have zoned out for a minute.”

Daniel, eyes screwed up against the discomfort, was pushing himself upright. “It’s got to be almost time for dinner,” he said. Right on cue, Janet came in bearing a tray. Singular. Evidently Jack had to fetch his own meals.

“I think there’s an extra tray for you on the cart, colonel,” Fraiser said. Feeling a bit sheepish, Jack got up and fetched it, returning to Daniel.

“. . . so I’m really not sure what to do for him,” Fraiser was saying as he returned.

“I’ve got something in motion already, Janet,” Daniel said. “I spoke to General Hammond when he came to see me.” Jack sat down, wondering who they were talking about. Nyan probably.

“Well, in the meantime, he’s got to have something to do,” the doctor said. “I’ve checked, he can’t read our magazines, though he was very interested in the pictures and ads for a while. I think he found it too frustrating not being able to read the words, though.” Jack nodded to himself. Nyan, definitely. He sat down and put his tray on the empty bed next to him.

Daniel’s eyes narrowed with thought. “Janet, can you do me a favor?” Fraiser nodded. “Can you get him to write something down for me? Several paragraphs, at least. I never saw their system of writing, so I can’t begin to guess what he might be able to read. But if I could see . . .”

“You might be able to help him. I’ll see what I can do.” Fraiser smiled at him and left the room.

Jack looked up from his tuna casserole and said, “You’re a good man, Daniel.”

Giving him a suspicious look, Daniel said, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What it says,” Jack replied, a little nettled that Daniel would assume he was being insulting. “You’re a good man.”

“There’s nothing special about me, Jack,” Daniel said.

“I beg to differ. There’s not that many people who, in your position, would be concerned about a stranger’s lack of reading material.”

Jack watched as Daniel consciously chose not to shrug.. “It’s not a big deal, Jack. I look at a bit of writing, figure out what linguistic variant we’re dealing with, and come up with some possible choices for Nyan to look at.”

“And that’s not a big deal?” Jack asked, knitting his brows.

“Not really.” Daniel looked down at his food in dismay. It was half-gone already. “I don’t like tuna casserole,” he said.

“I guess it’s better to feed you when you’re thinking about something else, then. That way you don’t even notice what you’re eating.”

Daniel glared at him, but didn’t even try to deny the allegation. Janet came in a few minutes later with a page of scrawled symbols that Daniel put down by his plate and stared at as he ate the remainder his tuna casserole with apparent relish. “Hmmm. . .” he said, and that was the last truly comprehensible sound out of his mouth for a while as he muttered in linguist-speak for several minutes. Jack found it very odd that people who studied language had to invent an entirely new language to talk about language.

“Well,” Daniel said finally, “I’ve got some things he might be able to puzzle out.” He reached out and picked up the phone at the bedside. Jack wondered who he was calling. “General? I hope you don’t mind my -- thank you. I needed to ask you . . . I know Nyan hasn’t got any kind of clearance yet, but would it be a problem if I let him look at a few texts I’ve got, nothing of military significance just . . . he can’t read English, yet, sir. We’ll have to teach him . . .” Daniel nodded. “Yes, sir, I know. But he did save all our lives by helping Teal’c. Yes, I’ll be careful. Thank you, sir.” There was a pause and Jack wondered what Hammond was saying. “I’ll be fine, sir,” Daniel said at last. “Thank you, general.” Daniel hung up the phone and looked up. “Well, I’ll just need someone to go up to my office and fetch a few things.”

Jack shook his head. “Not me,” he said. “The last time I tried to ‘fetch’ something out of your office, I didn’t hear the end of it for weeks, and I _still_ don’t understand what I screwed up.”

Daniel peered towards the passageway into the rest of the infirmary. “Janet?” he called softly. The doctor emerged. “I don’t suppose I could be excused for five minutes, just to run to my office. Please?”

Fraiser shook her head. “What part of ‘confined to the infirmary’ don’t you understand, Dr. Jackson? For a linguist, you seem to have a startling lack of comprehension at times.”

“Well, then, I’ll need to send someone up there.”

The doctor glanced at Jack, who shook his head. “I’m not doing it. Nothing you or he can say or do will make me.”

“Don’t you usually have Sam do that for you?” Fraiser asked, turning back to Daniel.

The archeologist looked sourly up at her. “I do, but she’s not here.” Fraiser glanced around the room. “And I’m not allowed to go and look for her.”

“Let me introduce you to an amazing new invention we have. It’s called ‘the phone.’”

Daniel turned those soulful blue eyes up at her. Jack was convinced that the man had no idea of his effect on people when he looked at them that way. “Come on, Janet. It wouldn’t take that much time for me to do it myself.”

“That may be so, but I’m not letting you out of the infirmary, and that’s final.”

“Janet?” Daniel begged, his eyelashes fluttering. “It’s not like I’m even hurt that badly. No worse than a bad sunburn, really.”

“Daniel!” She turned to Jack abruptly. “Colonel O’Neill, if he tries to get out of that bed, I want you to sit on him.”

Aware that his life was teetering in the balance here, Jack said, “Yes, ma’am.” She nodded sharply and left. When Daniel turned those betrayed soulful eyes on him, Jack shook his head. “Don’t give me that look. You never go to bat with Fraiser for me. It’s always, ‘But Jack, you almost died,’ or something.”

“Oh, right, throw that in my face,” Daniel said, glaring. “But this is different. I didn’t almost die. I didn’t even get close to dying. I just got . . .” He shifted uncomfortably. “I just got assaulted. Frankly, I think that’s got more to do with why Fraiser’s keeping me in the infirmary than anything else.”

“It’s more than my life’s worth to get between Doc Fraiser and a recalcitrant patient,” Jack said.

Daniel slumped, looking glum. After a moment, though, a spark of mischief lit his eyes. “I do believe you just used a four-syllable word, Jack,” he said. “Good for you.”

Jack straightened his back and glared. “What’s that got to do with anything?” he demanded.

“We were talking about words a little earlier,” Daniel said gently, as if talking to an elderly friend whose marbles had a tendency to roll away from time to time.

Pursing his lips, Jack said, “I am still your commanding officer, you know.”

Daniel nodded unrepentantly. “So?”

Jack shook his head. “I get no respect,” he said imploringly to the ceiling. The sound of a throat clearing startled him and he looked up to find Sam gazing at him with raised eyebrows. “Well, I don’t,” he said defensively.

“Yes, sir,” she said. “Whatever you say, sir.”

Daniel cleared his throat. “Hey, Sam, could you do me a favor?”

“Janet filled me in. Just give me a list of things to grab.”

Daniel started jotting things down. Jack stood up and wandered into the main room of the infirmary. Major Jayakoddy beckoned him over. “Sir, how is Dr. Jackson?”

“He’s fine,” Jack said.

“Those shock sticks pack a hell of a punch,” he said.

Jack nodded. “They do, but none of the three of us ever actually got shot by one,” he said. “They’re kind of multi-use items.”

“That’s what General Hammond said,” Jayakoddy replied.

“What about Teal’c?” Lt. Astor asked, tilting her head as if to get rid of a crick. “I heard that his symbiote was damaged. Is he going to be okay?”

“He’ll be fine. Dr. Fraiser was talking about releasing him from iso tomorrow.”

They both seemed pleased by the news, and Jack spoke with them briefly on other matters before wandering back into Daniel’s room. Sam had evidently left while he was talking to the others, and instead of working Daniel was staring off into space.

“Hey, Daniel,” Jack said quietly to get his attention.

Giving a slight jump that showed just how far out into the ozone he’d gone, Daniel turned and said, “What?”

“Just wondered what you were thinking so hard about.”

“Nothing,” Daniel said, then spoiled his attempt at avoidance by going on. “What is it about me, Jack? I mean, why do bullies I’ve never even met before make a beeline for me?”

It was a loaded question. Jack didn’t know how to answer it, or even if he should. How do you explain to someone that they come across to a certain mindset as the perfect victim? “It’s because you’re nice, Daniel,” Jack said.

“Because I’m nice,” Daniel repeated and Jack nodded.

“It’s practically written on your forehead.”

“So because I’m nice, people want to treat me like crap?”

“Not people,” Jack said in exasperation. “Certain people. For the most part, the people we meet like you. Five minutes in your presence and most people want to be your best friend.”

“Jack!” Somehow Daniel’s tone invested the name with a full sentence worth of meaning. _Don’t be a jerk, Jack, you’re full of shit and you know it._

“Daniel!” _Don’t be an idiot, you know it’s true._

“Jack!” _It’s not true. Why do you even say things like that?_

“Daniel . . .” _Why can’t you ever believe me when I tell you things?_

“Jack!” _Because you’re full of shit._

“Daniel!!!” _Daniel!!!_

A feminine voice from the other side of the room said, “What are they doing?” Doc Fraiser was staring at them, eyebrows raised.

“Having a conversation,” Sam said.

“Do they do this often?” Fraiser asked.

Jack’s eyes narrowed. Sam’s expression was just shy of open mirth. “Yes. Mostly they do it on missions, though. Often in fire fights.”

Fraiser blinked. “It’s an uncrackable code. No one would ever be able to figure it out.”

Sam shrugged. “Yeah, well, that’s the trouble. They’ve never been able to get me or Teal’c to understand it.”

“Are you done?” Jack asked. He spared a glance at Daniel, who looked about as irritated as he felt.

“Yes, sir,” Sam said. “Daniel, I forgot to ask. That stack of reports I couldn’t find last time, have you figured out where they were?”

Daniel nodded. “Robert borrowed them without telling me,” he said. “They should be back in my office by now.”

“Okay.” Sam gave each of them a quick grin and left.

“Yes, doctor?” Jack asked.

“Actually, it’s time for Daniel’s next treatment.”

Daniel closed his eyes briefly, then pushed the rolling table away. Jack started to get up to help him out of bed, but he shook his head. “I’m fine,” he muttered, fobbing Dr. Fraiser off, too. “I’m not comfortable, but I’m not incapable.”

Jack watched them leave and sat back, wondering what shape Daniel would be in when he returned this time. Sam got back first, and Jack looked up at her. “You seem very pleased, Carter” he said.

“It’s nice to see that you two are acting normally,” she said. “I mean, anyone who knows him could see that he’s not over it by any means, but he’s not . . . he hasn’t lost that . . . okay, now I’m sounding stupid.”

“I think I know what you mean,” Jack said. “He’s going to be just fine, in the actual sense of the word.”

She smiled broadly. “Good.”

“Now, would you go fetch him some coffee? And stay away until he’s back in here?”

Her mouth opened and worked briefly, then she managed to say, “What, sir? Why?”

He shook his head, realizing that he was acting like a moron. First by babbling stupidly at Daniel, and now by confusing the hell out of Carter. “The last time Daniel came out a treatment with Janet, he was really upset. I don’t think he’d want you to see him in that state is all.”

“But Janet wouldn’t --”

“Janet didn’t. It’s just part and parcel of what’s happened.”

“Oh,” she said. She still seemed confused, but it wasn’t the utterly baffled and slightly hurt confusion she’d had earlier. “I’ll just go then,” she added.

He nodded and watched her go, glad of the interruption if he was honest with himself. He’d been making a total hash of answering Daniel’s question, and he had no idea how to do a better job. When asked why bullies focused on Daniel, Jack’s immediate response was, ‘because they do.’ It wasn’t a particularly useful answer. He knew why on a gut level, but he couldn’t put it into words. Daniel probably had the words, but Jack didn’t think he’d ever understand it.

When Daniel returned, his face was screwed up into a rictus that resembled extreme pain, though Jack was sure it couldn’t be that. Fraiser, looking miserable, helped Daniel back onto the bed and then made a quick exit.

“I thought I was done with that!” Daniel growled before Jack could say anything.

“The treatment?” Jack asked, baffled.

Snatching a handful of tissues, Daniel buried his face in his hands. Resting a hip on the bed, Jack put his arm around Daniel’s shoulders very gently, and remained tactfully silent while the other man got himself pulled together again.

“I don’t understand,” Daniel groaned into his hands. He was remaining ramrod straight despite Jack’s subtle effort to get him to relax a little. “I thought -- I mean -- we talked -- I --”

Jack sighed and squeezed his shoulder gently. “It doesn’t work like that, Daniel,” he said softly. “And we didn’t really talk about you or your feelings. We talked about me and about generalities.”

“This is ridiculous!” he growled.

“It will pass,” Jack said.

Daniel pulled away and glared at him, though Jack could see that the anger was not directed towards him. “In the meantime, I’m making Janet feel like an ogre. It’s not fair to her.”

“She’ll understand, Daniel,” Jack said. Daniel bit his lip, seeming unconvinced. “And if she doesn’t, it’s her problem and we can find someone else.”

“I don’t need someone else, Jack,” Daniel said, looking alarmed. “I don’t want someone else. I trust Janet to take care of me.”

“Well, then, we’ll deal with what we have.”

“Why am I doing this?” Daniel demanded. “I know Janet would never hurt me, and I’m sure she’s got to find this at least as uncomfortable as I do.”

Jack grimaced. “You said it yourself earlier, Daniel, in treating you she’s unfortunately being forced to mimic some of what was done to you by Rigar.” The other man closed his eyes, biting his lip. “And every time she treats you for any of those injuries, it’s bound to remind you of how you got them.”

“I hate this!” Daniel growled.

“Ya think?” Jack said, which elicited a very weak chuckle from Daniel. “Look, I don’t know how you’re going to feel about this, but I think I ought to tell you. Rigar’s dead.”

Daniel’s head rose suddenly and he stared at Jack. “He’s what?”

“Dead. He was shot in the head twice.”

Daniel stared at him for a long moment, then his body began to shake all over, and he took in a long shuddering breath. Jack recognized shock when he saw it, so he snatched the blanket off the next bed over, wrapped it around Daniel’s shoulders, sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled his trembling archeologist into his arms gently to avoid hurting him.

“It’s okay, Daniel. He’s not going to be hurting you or anyone else,” he murmured. Knowing Daniel, it was the latter that would make more of a difference to him.

Sam appeared carrying three cups of coffee. Her eyes widened and she disappeared again. Jack grimaced. Great, now she’d be embarrassed and heaven only knew if she’d feel compelled to tell Daniel. That was the last thing he needed.

A moment later, Dr. Fraiser appeared. She walked up tentatively, reaching out a hand then pulling it back before she touched Daniel’s arm. “Daniel?”

Immediately, the archeologist pulled away, and Jack swung his arm wide to avoid hitting the burns as Daniel shifted. “I’m fine,” he said, his voice very controlled. “Just a little surprised.”

“What is it?” Fraiser asked gently, giving Jack a suspicious look.

Daniel looked up at Jack, his eyes wide. “Rigar’s dead?” he asked. “When? How? I thought we weren’t going after him.”

“We didn’t,” Jack said. “When they went to get the reactor . . . well, let’s just say the Bedrosians didn’t just give it back.”

“And Rigar was killed.” Daniel didn’t seem to be quite taking it in. “He’s dead.”

“As in doornail,” Jack replied.

Daniel took a deep breath, still shaking with reaction. “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m being so --”

“Don’t apologize,” Jack said, glaring at him. Apparently startled, Daniel fell silent. “You haven’t done one thing wrong, Daniel. Not one thing. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”


	11. Chapter 11

Daniel took several deep breaths. No matter what Jack said, he was acting like a head case. Rigar was dead. Okay, so he wasn’t going to do a dance of glee, but why did he go all shocky like this?

“Right,” Daniel said to Jack. “Right.” He pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders because he was cold. Ignoring the tremors in his body, he started trying to sort through the pile of folders and mission reports that Sam had brought him. He was aware of the three of them watching him, but he wasn’t going to give Janet a reason to call McKenzie again.

“Okay,” he said, pulling three folders out. “You can give these to Nyan. Tell him the pages are numbered already, so if he gets them out of order, it won’t be a problem.”

Janet took the three files, but she didn’t move away. “Daniel --” she started, but he shook his head.

“I’m fine, Janet,” he said, forcing his voice to be normal. Gesturing with his chin, he added, “Give those to Nyan and tell me if he thinks he’ll be able to read them.”

Janet bit her lip and then nodded. “I will, and thank you.” Giving him a nod and a worried look, she turned to go. Daniel felt a stab of guilt as she left, but he repressed it. He was angry with her, and it wasn’t going to go away, but he couldn’t help feeling guilty that it made her so unhappy. He just had to keep telling himself that it wasn’t his problem.

Breaking out of his thoughts, he looked around to see that Jack was still sitting on the edge of his bed, and Sam was standing at the side of the room burdened by three cups of coffee. They both seemed ill at ease and awkward.

Clearing his throat, he said, “Um . . . do I actually get one of those?”

Blinking as if startled to be directly addressed, Sam walked over and handed him one of the cups. She licked her lips nervously and said, “So, um . . .” The sound trailed off leaving silence behind.

He took the coffee with both hands and took a careful sip because his hands were still shaking. Jack stood up and shifted the rolling bed table back into reach and Daniel put the cup down. Apart from that, they both politely didn’t notice his continued trembling. The silence threatened to drag on for a century, so he took a deep breath and broke it again. “Um?” he prompted her helpfully.

She shrugged and passed Jack the third cup. “So, did you ever figure out that metaphor thing yesterday? The text of that bowl?”

“No, actually,” he said, knitting his brows. His hand strayed automatically to the relevant file, which was at the bottom of the stack. “I was kind of letting that percolate.” He pulled out the file and flipped it open thoughtfully. The photo he’d taken of the bowl was on top. In shape, the bowl was almost urn-like, but very low and broad. It was fashioned of very fine pottery, pale gold in hue, and had pairs of parallel lines painted in dark green around it about a half an inch from the bottom, and at the rim of the opening. Between these pairs of lines, rows of text snaked their way around its surface. There was a light glaze over its surface, causing it to shine in the light. All in all, it was quite lovely. “I’d like to go back and see if I can find any more samples of the language, but I don’t see any real excuse to give General Hammond to justify the manpower it would take.” He shrugged. “Besides, there’s no guarantee that it would be any help.”

Jack had picked up the photographs from the planet and was looking through them. “Why not?” he asked. “These are pretty dark, but it looks like there’s a lot of junk there.”

“Right,” Daniel said, rolling his eyes a little at Jack’s persistent use of the word ‘junk’ when referring to archeological relics. “Well, if you look at the notes and not just at the pictures, you’d see this isn’t a village site, or a burial place, it’s a cache.” Jack looked at him blankly, and though Daniel was sure he was probably putting on the dumb look for his benefit, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to impart knowledge where there might be none. “Someone or some group has looted multiple different sites and hidden their plunder in this spot.” Daniel started to pick up the page, but his hand was still shaking so he settled for leaning over and looking at the notes. “From what Camden says here, this cache could be between three and seven hundred years old.”

“What’s in it?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know,” Daniel replied, shaking his head. “Camden found the cache by accident, this says, and he didn’t have a lot of time. This planet’s stargate is on a tiny island, and there was a storm coming in. He grabbed the bowl because it stuck out from the rest of the stuff, and hightailed it for the gate.”

Sam and Jack exchanged a glance, looking vaguely conspiratorial. Sam leaned on the edge of the bed, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. “So, we have no idea what’s actually in this cache?” she asked. Daniel shook his head, puzzled by her mood. What could possibly have engendered this sudden interest?

Jack cleared his throat. “Then how can we know if it has military significance?” he asked, tossing the photos back down on top of the file. “Those aren’t the clearest shots in the world, you know.” Daniel blinked, startled. Both his teammates grinned at his mystified expression, and Jack said, “There could be sharp pointy stuff, or things that go ‘boom.’”

Daniel shook his head, baffled. “Camden didn’t say --”

“Camden was there for what, a half-hour? He’s not even an archeologist, just the closest thing SG-14 has to one. What does he know?”

“He’s actually pretty good at spotting --” Daniel started, but broke off when he saw Sam’s amused and exasperated expression. “What?” he asked.

“Carter, remind me _not_ to take Daniel when I go talk to the general about P . . . what planet is it anyhow?” He flipped the report closed and looked at the cover. “M3T-33H.”

“Yes, sir,” Sam said and Daniel raised an eyebrow.

“What are you going to talk to him about?” Daniel asked.

“Putting it on our mission roster, Daniel” Jack said with exaggerated patience. “Would you like that?”

“That would be great,” Daniel said slowly, not sure how to take this. Surely Jack understood that this would be an archeology only mission . . . Daniel licked his lips. “Are you sure?”

“Yup,” Jack said with finality. “Now, would you do me a favor?”

“Um . . . maybe,” Daniel said.

Jack picked up his outlines and put them down in front of Daniel. “Both of you, actually, check these over and see if I missed anything.”

Daniel picked up one the sheets and Sam grabbed another. His hands were still shaking, but it was less noticeable now. The only thing missing was Teal’c, and according to Janet he’d be out of isolation tomorrow. Daniel sighed. Once he was released from the infirmary and Teal’c was out of bed, things could get back to normal.

* * *

Jack stood up. He’d finished making the changes and corrections that Sam and Daniel had insisted were necessary in his outlines. He hadn’t actually expected them to make so many suggestions and revisions. Sam had gone back to work on her computer models, or whatever, and Daniel had been asleep for about an hour.

He stretched and walked out into the main section of the infirmary. Janet was just leaving her office in the care of Dr. Hinkle. Her purse was on her shoulder and she was clearly preparing to leave. She looked up when she saw him, though, and said, “You staying the night again, colonel?”

He shrugged. “Been thinking about it.”

She smiled up at him. “I’m glad he trusts you. He doesn’t trust a lot of people, and he needs that right now.”

Jack didn’t quite know what to say. He turned towards Dr. Hinkle. “Hey, if Daniel wakes up and wants to know what happened to me, tell him I’ll be back soon.”

“Yes, sir,” Hinkle said.

He walked out into the hallways with Fraiser. At this hour they were largely deserted. There were always teams offworld, so a certain amount of staff was on duty at all times, but after about eight o’clock the extraneous staff was all gone.

“Colonel?” Fraiser said after a moment. He looked down at her. He had something he wanted to discuss with her, but he hadn’t expected her to initiate a conversation. “Can I give you some advice?”

“Okay,” Jack said, knitting his brows.

“Unless you want to give the impression that Daniel is dying, seriously injured or . . . broken . . . don’t stay in the infirmary tonight.” Jack felt his brows raise in surprise. “Take one of the bunks in the barracks or something, but don’t stay in the infirmary.”

Caught flatfooted, Jack just nodded and kept walking with her. He hadn’t considered it in that light. They reached the elevator, and he slid his card then pressed the button. She seemed a little surprised that he was continuing to walk with her, but he waited until the doors had closed, sealing them off from casual listeners before he spoke. “Doc, I don’t know what’s up between you and Daniel,” he said. He’d observed some vibes between them that indicated that there was some kind of tension. Now just wasn’t the time to let something like that fester. She opened her mouth to respond, but he shook his head. “And I don’t need to know,” he added, giving her a somber look. She nodded and closed her mouth, waiting. “I just wanted to tell you something -- well, two things really. One, even if the treatment is really freaking him out, he’s okay, really. He knows he needs it, it’s just something that’s going to take time to get past.” She nodded, biting her lips and looking towards the doors. “And two, he told me, absolutely, that he trusts you to take care of him.” She turned her head sharply and looked up at him. “I’ve seen you looking tentative about trying to help him, so knock it off.” She turned back toward the front of the elevator again, not speaking. “It’s just my observations, take them for what they’re worth,” he said.

The doors slid open. She stepped forward and paused in the doorway. “Thank you, colonel,” she said. “See you in the morning.”

“Good night, Fraiser,” he said and she let the doors close. He went back to the infirmary, grabbed up his stuff and told Hinkle where to find him if he was needed, then went and found a bunk in the barracks.

* * *

When Jack got to the infirmary in the morning, he found Fraiser explaining to Nyan in words of one syllable why he was still being kept in bed. Apparently, that stun weapon could do some pretty nasty things to the nervous system. Not everyone was sensitive to it, but if you were . . .

Major Jayakoddy, seeming entirely well again, was up and talking to Lt. Astor, who was still looking pretty ashen.

He walked through into the back section and found Daniel was still sleeping. Sitting down, he picked up one of Daniel’s files and started flipping through it. He’d left the one on M3T-33H on top. The man was so without guile. And for all they knew, even if there weren’t any ‘things that go boom’ there, some of the artifacts might contain useful information. He read the report cover to cover. The island wasn’t even a square mile, it was rocky and covered in evergreen bushes. Nothing so tall as a tree. Even using a spotting scope, land wasn’t in sight from any of the shores or the highest point on the island, and there were no signs of people anywhere. Except that cache, which Daniel said was at least three hundred years old.

It would be a great place for a quiet little mission.

Beside him, Daniel said, “I thought you were gone.”

Jack shrugged. “I came back. How are you feeling?”

“Kind of achy,” Daniel said. Dr. Fraiser walked up at that moment, and Daniel snorted. “What, Janet? Have you got radar that tells you when I’m awake?”

She smiled at him, showing none of the tentativeness she’d displayed the day before. “No, just very good observation skills. Let’s get you up.”

Daniel got out of bed and irritably twitched the hospital gown closed behind him. “Is there any chance of a shower today?” he asked.

“We’ll see,” Fraiser said as they went towards the examination room.

Jack sat back and looked over the file on M3T-33H again. Then he grabbed a pen and a blank sheet of paper and wrote Daniel a quick note. “Back soon.”

Then he left in the direction of Hammond’s office.

* * *

Janet rubbed the cream across Daniel’s back. “No blisters by now means there probably won’t be any,” she commented.

“That’s a relief,” Daniel said.

She probed gently and he hissed. “You’re still pretty tender, though,” she added.

“It’ll pass,” Daniel replied. She finished applying the cream and, steeling himself, he bent over the exam bed. To his surprise, she just gave him a quick examination and stepped back. He turned slowly, perplexed. “The abrasions are healing nicely. Now, given the tenderness of your back and groin, do you think you could apply the ointment yourself?”

He nodded fervently. “Not a problem,” he said.

She gazed measuringly at him, then handed him the tube of ointment. “I’ll be back in a few moments.”

It was with distinct relief that he began to medicate himself, resolutely ignoring the pain the twisting caused him. He could survive a little pain.

Janet came back, checked him over and then sent him back to bed.

* * *

“So, you want to take Major Carter and get some snapshots?” the general asked, and Jack winced internally at the tone.

“It’s more like a second --”

The internal phone beeped and Jack broke off as the general glanced down at the readout. He held up a hand and Jack leaned back in his chair to wait while the general picked up his call. “Hammond.”

He let his mind wander, considering Rigar’s rotting corpse and the pleasant notion that something unpleasant might be gnawing on it. Then Hammond’s words riveted his attention.

“Yes, Dr. Fraiser, I can spare you a few minutes in, say, a half hour.” He paused. “If you need to see Colonel O’Neill, he’s with me.” Another pause. “I see. Fine, then come on up now.”

Hammond hung up the phone, and before the receiver was even in the cradle, Jack had leaned forward. “Is there something wrong with Teal’c?” he asked urgently. Or, hell! He hadn’t stayed in the infirmary. Was Daniel upset? No, it would almost have to be Teal’c for her to be calling the general.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Hammond said. “As far as I know, Teal’c is still scheduled for release from isolation today. No, Dr. Fraiser wants to talk to both of us about Dr. Jackson.”

Damn! “Daniel? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know that there’s anything wrong, colonel,” Hammond said, his eyes crinkling with sympathy. “She didn’t sound worried.” Jack nodded, relaxing a little back into his chair. What could it be? “Now, about M3T-33H . . .”

With an effort, Jack wrenched his mind back on topic. “I’d look at it as more of a second recon, sir,” Jack said. “The last visit was in the middle of a storm, and the pictures aren’t very clear.”

“But why not wait until your team’s all ready to go?” Hammond suggested.

“Sir, the point was actually to give Daniel something to think about besides the last couple of days. Carter and I go take a few pictures of this cache, look at the lay of the land, see if the initial survey had the right of it that it’s a pretty safe location, then we can use it as Daniel’s first mission back after his . . . injury.”

Hammond nodded slowly. “You’re taking advantage of my concern over Dr. Jackson’s health,” he observed, narrowing his eyes shrewdly.

With the general, honesty was almost always the best policy. Jack sat up straight and said, “Yes, sir, I am.”

“Well, I’m glad to see that you still have a good sense of timing,” Hammond said, a smile twitching the corner of his mouth.

Jack shrugged. “I’ve always been good at tactical strikes, sir.”

The general snorted. “Your mother must have had a handful with you,” he said.

Shrugging again, Jack grinned and said, “Yes sir. So, will you okay the mission?”

“Both missions, you mean,” Hammond corrected, his eyebrow twitching with amusement. “Yes, colonel, I will.”

There was a knock at the door, announcing Fraiser’s arrival. “Come in,” Hammond called.

The doctor walked in and shut the door behind her. “General, colonel,” she said, nodding at them. “I have a conundrum regarding the continuing treatment of Dr. Jackson.”

“And what’s that?” Hammond asked. Jack knit his brows, perplexed.

“There are a number of issues,” she said. “First, Dr. Jackson is able to take care of all his injuries but the one in the center of his back, and his physical condition isn’t so bad now that I can justify confining him to the infirmary when he doesn’t want to be there.”

“I see.”

“And, as you know, sir, he has refused point blank to discuss his emotional reaction to this situation with me.”

Hammond nodded. “That’s why we’ve asked Colonel O’Neill to step in to try and help.” Jack kept his expression neutral, not sure where this was going.

“I’m afraid it may go a little further than that,” Fraiser said. “I believe that my presence may be inhibiting him, and that’s the last thing he needs right now.”

“I’m not sure I understand you, doctor,” Hammond said.

She pursed her lips uncomfortably. “I’m afraid that he worries that any reaction he shows in front of me may wind up in a record that gets sent off to someone like Dr. McKenzie.” Understanding dawned, though Jack was a little surprised. He’d thought Daniel had gotten past that whole padded room thing awhile back. Fraiser sighed. “He’s bottling his reactions up when I come in.” She shook her head. “I’m not sure I shouldn’t step aside and let another doctor handle his care.”

Hammond was nodding, but Jack shook his head sharply. “Absolutely not! You can’t do that.”

Fraiser looked at him. “I appreciate what you told me last night, colonel, but I really --”

“Doc, listen to me,” he said, leaning towards her. “When we got into the infirmary day before yesterday, Daniel absolutely refused to let anyone else see him. He said he would wait for you, no matter how long it took. I thought he was going to twist my arm off when I even suggested getting someone else. This mental health issue aside, Daniel definitely wants you to be his doctor.”

Fraiser gazed levelly at him and he met her eyes unflinchingly. Finally, she nodded. “All right, I’ll take your word for it, colonel.” She turned back to the general. “Regardless, I’m going to have to release Dr. Jackson from the infirmary today, but I’m really not sure I want him going home alone. I certainly don’t want him driving yet.”

Jack shrugged. “He can come stay at my place,” he said. “I’ve got plenty of space, and he’s stayed there before.”

“Yes, but are you willing to help him with his burn cream? He can’t manage his back on his own.”

“I can always get Carter to swing by,” Jack said, and the doctor rolled her eyes. “No, seriously, doc, I can take care of it.”

“Are you relieving him from duty?” Hammond asked.

Fraiser sighed. “I’ve found that doesn’t work very well with him unless he’s so incapacitated that even he knows he can’t do anything.” She shook her head. “And I’ll want him coming in for check ups for the next couple of days, I think, to make sure the burns are healing properly. No off world duty, certainly, and I’d recommend only half-days at his desk. He’s going to sleep a lot, burns do that, but he can take naps on the couch in his office.”

“Fine,” Hammond said. “You explain to him that he is to sleep when he feels the need to, and I’ll sign off on your recommendations, provided he agrees to staying with Colonel O’Neill.”

“Thank you, general,” Dr. Fraiser said.

Jack stood up. “That’s all I came for,” he said. “Thank you, general.”

“Well, then, both of you clear out of my office, so I can get some real work done.”

Jack tossed him a wry, not entirely regulation salute and left.


	12. Chapter 12

Daniel had been more than a little surprised to find that Jack wasn’t waiting for him when he returned from the exam. When he settled down to get some work done, he was even more surprised to find that the report for M3T-33H was missing. Shaking his head, he started translating yet another tablet in Goa’uld. “The great god Apophis . . . yadda yadda . . . traitors and villains . . . yadda . . . annihilation . . . yadda yadda.” They began to read alike after a while.

Continuing to read through it, he chuckled. “And amazingly, we’re still here,” he muttered.

When Janet and Jack walked into the room together, Daniel looked up with a sinking feeling. Then Jack grinned and Janet walked over and rested her hand on the end of the bed. “I’m going to release you now,” she said. Daniel’s eyes widened, and he started to speak but she held up a hand to forestall him. “With some provisos,” she added.

He damped down on his elation a bit and tilted his head. “Provisos?” he asked.

“First, I’m not comfortable with you going home alone, and I don’t want you driving until those burns are more completely healed.” She paused.

“So . . .” he said, glancing up at Jack, who had not lost his grin.

“So if you’re willing to go and stay with Colonel O’Neill, I will release you.”

That explained the grin then. Jack was feeling good about springing him. Daniel was all for that. He wanted to get the hell out of this hospital gown, even if clothes weren’t entirely comfortable.

“Okay, I don’t have a problem with that,” he said.

“He’ll also be putting the medication on your back,” she said. Daniel shrugged and managed to suppress the grimace. He was going to have to stop doing that. Janet went on. “You’ll have to come in for check ups over the next couple of days. I want to keep an eye on those burns.”

“What about work?” he asked.

“Half days, but not necessarily all at a stretch,” she said. He wrinkled his eyebrows.

“She’s encouraging you to sleep in your office, Daniel,” Jack said suddenly. “Grab the chance while you can. Most people get in trouble for that.”

Daniel blinked at Jack a couple of times. “Okaaaaay,” he said dubiously.

“That’s an interesting way of looking at it, colonel,” Janet replied. “But essentially accurate. Burns take a lot of energy to heal, so I want you to take naps when you feel like it.”

Daniel nodded. “Okay, I can live with that. Does this mean I can have a shower?”

“A very careful one. No scrub brushes on your back, okay?”

He winced at the very thought. “Trust me, I won’t. By the way, how did Nyan do with those texts I sent him?”

“Fine,” Janet said. “He’s having a little trouble concentrating. His nerves are still jangling a bit from the blast that knocked him down.”

Daniel nodded. “Well, then, by all means, let me to the showers.”

She led him to the infirmary shower and said, “You’ll have to reapply the burn cream as soon as you finish the shower.”

“Okay,” he said. Daniel took the clothes Jack had in his hand. “I’ll be out shortly.”

He took as fast a shower as was reasonable under the circumstances. His hair was positively disgusting, and the sponge baths that were all he’d gotten since his return from P2X-416 were not sufficient to make him feel properly clean. Even lukewarm water felt like needles on his burned back, but anything was better than another day of feeling grimy.

He medicated himself as much as he was able, and, pulling on his pants, socks and boots, went to the door. “Jack could you ask Janet to come here?”

“Why, you got a problem?”

“No, I just need to have the cream put on my back.”

Jack shook his head. “Here, I’m going to be doing it anyway. Turn around.” Daniel handed him the cream and turned his back. Jack slathered it on, somewhat less deftly than Janet, but gently all the same. “There, not a work of art, but you’ll do.”

“Thanks,” Daniel said, feeling a little embarrassed. He put his t-shirt on over his head and pulled it down very carefully.

“Hammond wants to see you if you’re feeling up to it.” Jack shrugged. “Actually, us, he said.”

Daniel nodded, then looked around for Janet. He waved and she smiled at him, then walked over. “If you come back in about a half hour, Teal’c should be out here.”

“It’s a date,” Jack said. “Come on, Daniel.”

Walking slowly, more tired than he’d realized lying in the bed, Daniel followed his commanding officer through the base. Jack pulled ahead without seeming to notice, only seeing how far behind him Daniel was when he turned at the elevator. When Daniel drew even with him, he put a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?”

Daniel gave him a weak grin. “Just tired. Let’s go see Hammond, then I can go up to my office and bury myself in artifact reports.”

Jack nodded as the doors slid open. A couple of the men coming out gave Daniel odd looks as they passed, and one of the women gave him a sympathetic smile. A little too zoned to make sense of it, he just put it down to his own paranoia and got into the elevator with Jack.

They got out of the elevator and Hammond’s secretary smiled and greeted them, waving them in. Daniel felt very conspicuous, but he figured that his paranoia was really kicking into overdrive. He’d been injured on missions before. No one would have any reason to think this time was any different.

Hammond rose as they entered and gestured them to the chairs. Daniel perched uncomfortably. “Any news about Nyan, sir?” he asked.

“Nyan?” Jack repeated.

“Yes, that’s why I wanted to talk to you. I’ve gotten permission to keep him here on a probationary basis, provided that you the rest of SG-1 are willing to keep an eye on him.”

“I don’t think . . .” Daniel looked over at Jack, realizing that he’d better not promise the colonel’s help without checking first.

“What are we talking about?”

“Well, Nyan is technically a refugee,” Hammond said, “but his people have attacked ours, and there’s always some concern when someone changes sides in the middle of a fight.”

Jack started nodding. “Daniel’s asked to have him stay?”

“As his assistant.”

Daniel gave Jack a tight grin, hoping he’d agree.

“Sounds like a great idea, sir. Daniel works too hard. He needs someone to spread the load out. I think I speak for all of SG-1 in saying that we’ll keep an eye on him. He helped get us out of there.”

“Without his help, I don’t think we would have gotten back as soon as we did,” Daniel said. Both the other men looked at him oddly, so he guessed he must sound or look kind of tense. “But we did. And we’re fine. All safe and fine.” He decided to shut up, because Jack and Hammond were looking at him with some concern.

“Dr. Jackson, are you sure you’re feeling well enough to go home yet?” the general asked in a fatherly voice.

“Yes, sir,” Daniel said, and winced at how desperate he sounded. “Really, sir, I’m ready to get out of here.”

Hammond nodded. “I can see that, son. Why don’t you and Colonel O’Neill take the rest of the day off. Go home, get some rest, watch some movies.”

“Teal’c’s just about to come out of isolation,” Jack said.

“Well, then go see him and then go home. Get, both of you. If I could get Major Carter to take some personal time, I would, but I doubt it’s possible.”

Daniel got to his feet and thanked the general. “So can we tell Nyan the good news?” Jack asked.

“Certainly. I just hope he’ll think it’s good news.”

As they headed back to the elevator, Daniel said, “Let me stop by my office. I want to get something.”

Jack agreed and they headed over. Daniel reached into a shelf and pulled out a small flat box that he’d put together a few months back in case they ever needed to teach someone English writing and put a note into the top of it in the closest approximation of Nyan’s writing he could manage.

“What’s that?” Jack asked as they started back towards the infirmary.

“Sort of a primer,” Daniel said. “Nyan doesn’t know any English writing, so he’ll need something to get him started.”

* * *

As they headed back to the elevator, Jack inadvertently drew ahead of Daniel again, forgetting briefly that his friend was a little less able than usual. He reached a corner and realized that Daniel wasn’t with him and turned. Daniel was making his way slowly down the hall and he had an oddly closed expression on his face. Jack went to meet him. “You okay, Dannyboy?” he asked.

Daniel gave him a very dry look. “You keep calling me Dannyboy and you’re not going to be okay much longer,” he said.

Jack snorted and they pressed on towards the elevator, Jack being careful to keep his pace down so that they stayed together. Once they were on the elevator, alone, thankfully, Jack said, “So, something was bugging you. Spit it out?”

“It was nothing, Jack,” Daniel protested.

“Daniel?”

Jack watched Daniel rolled his eyes and was amused at how expressive the man’s face was. Irritation, annoyance, embarrassment, all these rolled across his face until his expression settled on resignation. “A couple of guys walked towards me talking, and they fell silent as they reached me. It doesn’t take a genius to tell what that means.”

“Daniel, they could have been talking about anything,” Jack said, though he had a feeling Daniel was right. “I mean, half the guys here think you would freak if someone used a four-letter word in front of you.”

“Nice try, Jack,” Daniel said. He shook his head. “I’m not saying that they know what happened, but no one could avoid knowing that something happened, and there are plenty of guys around here who think I should be stuck behind a desk rather than going out on missions.”

“Well, not the guys who count. Just remember that.”

They stopped by Carter’s lab to let her know that Teal’c was being allowed face to face visitors and she came along with them. As they walked into the infirmary, Jack noticed that Daniel stayed practically glued to him, and he wanted to shoot the couple of buttheads who had been so tactless in the hall.

Teal’c and Nyan were in the main part of the infirmary, Teal’c in the bed Daniel had given up when he was moved for more privacy. Fraiser appeared to be finishing up some kind of check up on Teal’c. She made way for them as they approached. Carter went straight for Teal’c, but Jack noticed that there were still guards on Nyan. With Daniel close behind him, Jack walked around the end of Teal’c’s bed and gestured the guards away.

“How are you feeling?” Carter asked Teal’c.

“Greatly improved, Major Carter, thank you.”

Jack walked up to Nyan as the guards left and looked down at him. He reminded him of Daniel in a lot of ways. His enthusiasm for his subject, his concern for others. They’d all heard now how he’d risked his own life to save Teal’c’s eyesight, and he’d seen for himself the risks the man had taken to get SG-1 home again. “Here’s some good news. The Air Force has agreed to get you refugee status, which means you can stay here on Earth, with us.” As he’d expected, Nyan looked more puzzled than pleased. “If you’d like.”

Nyan shook his head. “What would I do here?” he asked pathetically. Jack couldn’t blame him for feeling lost, but this was really Daniel’s pidgin, so he turned to see if Daniel was going to rise to the occasion.

Daniel had a slight smile. “Well, I think we’ve got a little job for you, Nyan,” he said, presenting him with the box he’d called a primer. Nyan seemed a little dubious, but Daniel wasn’t done. “I have a backlog of ancient artifacts coming from previous missions, and I could really use a research assistant.” Nyan still didn’t look convinced, and with the culture on his home planet, Jack couldn’t say he was surprised. “It would also be a great way to learn about the history of your ancestors,” Daniel added, and this seemed to be the lure Nyan needed. He grinned and looked down at the box eagerly. Jack nearly snorted. Just what the SGC needed, another goofy archeologist.

“But for now,” Fraiser said, “you both need to rest.” Jack looked over his shoulder to see that Teal’c was watching their conversation with interest. Clearly this was a friendship that was going to last. Jack was glad of that. Teal’c needed friends, and while they weren’t much alike, they would at least have the common experience of culture shock to unite them.

“And we’ll leave you to that,” Jack said, nodding to both of them. He left, Daniel still close behind, gathering Carter as they left. Once outside, Jack said, “We’re heading to my place, Carter. Hammond told me you weren’t taking any personal time?”

“No, sir,” Carter said. “That problem with the dialing computer needs to be resolved.” She grimaced. “Besides, it keeps me busy.” She gave Daniel a careful hug, sketched Jack a salute and walked off.

“Okay, then, let’s get going,” Jack said, and Daniel nodded, seeming exhausted by his effort to maintain a pleasant mood in the infirmary.


	13. Chapter 13

Jack seemed to be content to let him be silent, and Daniel was glad. They got changed into civvies and started to go up to the surface. Janet caught them just after they left the locker room.

“Daniel. One thing.” He turned. “Remember, burns need as much air as they can get to heal. Wear loose pants and avoid shirts as much as possible.”

“Yes, Janet,” he said. “Whatever you say.”

He grabbed a couple of things out of his car and then climbed into Jack’s truck, which turned out to be more difficult than he expected. Once he was inside he relaxed against the seat then sat forward, hissing. “Ow,” he groaned.

“You sure about --”

“Don’t ask, Jack. I don’t want to hear it, I just want to be out of here.”

Wisely, Jack shut up, got in beside him and started driving. If he drove a little more carefully, with a little more attention to where the dips in the road were, Daniel wasn’t going to comment. He was out of the infirmary, and that was a very happy thing.

They’d been on the road for a while when Jack said, “Well, I got the go ahead from Hammond.”

“On what?”

“M3T-33H,” Jack said with patient exasperation. “When you and Teal’c are ready for missions again, we’ll go there and take a good look around.”

Daniel blinked at the nonchalant profile of his friend. “You knew I wanted to go, so you pulled strings,” he said after a moment.

“Sounds like an apt description,” Jack replied. “Got a problem with that?”

“No,” Daniel said. “Thanks.”

“Actually it was just one string,” Jack said after a moment. “And it wasn’t any trouble at all.”

Daniel leaned back and gently rested his shoulders against the seat of the truck. He was expecting the sting this time, so it wasn’t as shocking. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the headrest. The next thing he knew, Jack was saying, “Hey, Daniel, aren’t you going to come in and pack?”

“Wha --?” He blinked and looked up at his apartment building. After a moment, he got out of the truck and went up to his apartment with Jack. He grabbed his toothbrush and other toiletries while Jack rummaged around in his drawers. When he emerged, he found that Jack had dumped a bunch of clothing on his bed in random piles. “What are you doing?”

“Looking for loose pants.” Jack gestured towards a pile that was comprised of sweat pants, a couple of pairs of shorts, some slacks. “Where the hell do you get all this clothing?”

Daniel shrugged. “Every three or four months, Sam decides she’s had enough of me wearing the same clothes to work every day and she takes matters into her own hands.”

“Does she?”

“She comes here and kidnaps me. Takes me to the mall and makes me try things on. Then she chooses stuff and makes me pay for it. Then we have dinner, see a movie and go home.”

“Sounds like a date,” Jack said incredulously.

“Like going on a date with your sister, maybe,” Daniel said. “You know, the one who bosses you around, insults your taste and personal habits, points out prospective girlfriends in the mall, and makes you eat all your greens.”

“She does all that?” Jack asked.

Daniel nodded. “She does it to Teal’c, too . . . well, not the girlfriend part, I guess. Not as often because he doesn’t need that many civvies. Where do you think he gets them?”

“I see,” Jack said. “Wait, I bought him some clothes right there at the beginning.”

Daniel snorted. “Jack, that was three years ago.”

Jack looked abashed. “Still I did buy him clothes.”

“I know,” Daniel said, grinning. “She took him out almost immediately afterwards to ‘get things that went with them.’”

Jack shook his head. “What do you mean? Those were perfectly good outfits.”

“ _I_ thought so,” Daniel said. “So did Teal’c. She said we wouldn’t understand.”

“So when she takes Teal’c out on these trips, she takes you, too?”

Daniel nodded. “Oh yeah. The one time she didn’t, there was almost a riot in the dressing room. I’m still not sure what Teal’c asked the man in the next room, but whatever it was annoyed him a little.”

Jack’s eyebrows raised almost to his hairline. “I can imagine,” he said. “Well, let’s get you some things packed up and head over to my place.”

With a duffle in the back of Jack’s truck and a satchel full of books at his feet, Daniel did up his seat belt and relaxed against the seat. Jack turned on the radio to an oldies station. Real oldies, not the oldies that only come from the 80s. This time he didn’t fall asleep, but he drifted into a half aware state that was very pleasant.

He was awakened by Jack opening the door and climbing out. Daniel fumbled for the door handle and got it open, slipping out to the ground. He started to pick up his satchel, but Jack slid in and picked it up for him. “Come on, sleepyhead, let’s get you to bed.”

“It’s not even four in the afternoon,” Daniel said.

“It’s not even two,” Jack replied. “You clearly need a nap. We can watch movies later.”

Jack dumped Daniel’s duffle in the spare room and went out. Daniel started sorting through it, growing more confused. His sleep befuddlement wasn’t helping. “Jack!”

“What?” The man was back in the room so quickly it startled Daniel.

“Did you forget to pack my pajamas?”

Jack shrugged. “I figured Fraiser would be happier if you slept in the buff. All that air circulation stuff.”

Daniel stared at him blankly for a minute, then said, “Okay.” He reached up and started taking off his shirt.

Jack turned away. “I’ll be in the living room if you need me.”

Not responding, Daniel stripped bare and climbed into the bed.

* * *

Jack went into the kitchen and fixed himself a snack, then went into the living room and sat down. Fraiser hadn’t been kidding. Both trips in the truck, Daniel was out like a light, and it hadn’t taken much persuasion to get him to lie down for a nap. Fraiser had made it clear to Jack that he shouldn’t worry if Daniel slept a lot, and she’d also been pretty emphatic about keeping those burns as uncovered as possible short of making Daniel sit around naked.

Great, he was going to have a half-naked archeologist wandering around his house. He wondered when the female staff would start dropping by to comfort the wounded lamb. Daniel had never noticed, despite the lack of subtlety displayed by so many of them, the swath he’d cut through the female contingent of the SGC. Sam seemed to be immune, as did Fraiser, and most of them got over it in time, but when he was wounded it seemed to bring out either the big sister or the mother in all of them.

If they showed up to find him half naked . . . well, they might never get rid of them.

He turned on the TV with the remote, then promptly turned it off again. It was almost two in the afternoon, and he wasn’t in the mood for toons. Oh, he could probably find something if he looked hard enough, but he wasn’t up to the effort that would require.

It was odd to be home in the middle of the day. He wasn’t much good at it. His mind kept dwelling on the miserable wretch who had so badly hurt his friend to obtain information that he couldn’t provide. He wondered if they would destroy the stargate now, those Bedrosians. Or maybe the Optricans would hear about it and try to seize their ‘holy gateway.’ And good men -- honest, honorable men, like Nyan -- would be caught in the middle of it, as they always were in war.

Jack shook his head. It wasn’t his problem, would never be his problem, thank God.

He turned the TV on again and found a documentary channel where they were talking about serial killers and watched that. It was as cheerful, if not more so, than his thoughts.

* * *

He was in the middle of a much more pleasant documentary about the history of the Colt Peacemaker when there was a knock at the door. He got up and answered it, and stared at Sam, who was standing outside just as he’d imagined several of the other female staffers would. Worried look, check. Nervous, apologetic grin, check. Food item with which to soothe wounded lamb, check. He’d _thought_  she was immune. Was he wrong?

“Carter,” he said. “Come in.”

She followed him into the living room. “When General Hammond said you two had gone home and that he really wanted me to take the rest of the day off, I --”

“Come in, sit down,” he said. “Daniel’s upstairs, still napping.”

She glanced toward the ceiling and put her offering on the coffee table. Chocolate chip cookies. “How is he?”

Jack shrugged. “As well as can be expected,” he said. “I’ll have a better answer for you in a couple of weeks.” She nodded, grimacing. Jack turned the TV off. “I got permission from Hammond for us to go to M3T-33H and take some photos for Daniel.”

“Take photos for Daniel?” she asked.

“Yeah, so he can tell us what a rotten job we did and try to glean information from them,” he said. She was still looking puzzled. “It will cut in on all that quality brooding time.”

“Ah!” she said, smiling. “I see. Good thought, sir.”

“So, did you check on Teal’c before you left?” he asked.

The smile faded. “Yes, I did. He’s . . . he’s a little angry with us.”

“Angry?” Jack shook his head. “Why?”

“Um . . . Feretti stopped by to visit him, and let something slip.”

“Something about . . .”

“Daniel, sir,” Carter said. “What happened on the planet.”

Jack blinked. They hadn’t told Teal’c. He’d been unconscious, then out of reach, and somehow it wasn’t the kind of thing you wanted to yell over a microphone, but they could have told him today before they left. “Hell,” he muttered. “How did he react?”

“He blames himself. He thinks he should have moved faster, avoided the weapon that blinded him, somehow gotten us out before they put the force field up . . . a lot of things that don’t make much sense. Nyan was trying to calm him, and actually having some success. He wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Damn, I’ll have to go apologize tomorrow.”

She nodded, and they fell silent for a moment. “He should be up and around by tomorrow evening, assuming he manages to get into kelnoreem with as angry as he is.”

“So, you got any good news?”

“Sgt. French’s wife is going to have twins,” she said.

“Well, that is good news,” Jack said. “I think. Twins?”

“What about twins?” Daniel asked from the doorway. He was wearing a pair of loose, drawstring pants that were riding low on his hips and nothing else. Evidently he’d taken Fraiser’s advice very much to heart. Just as obviously, he hadn’t expected Sam’s presence. He must have thought that Jack was talking on the phone. “Sam!” he exclaimed, eyes widening.

Carter’s eyes were just as wide. “Daniel, are you okay? Are you --”

“I should get a shirt,” he said, cutting across her babbling, but he didn’t immediately move.

Her eyes were fixed to the marks on his chest and stomach. They looked rather as if someone had shoved the tip of a hot iron against him for a second. Sam made a stab at normal conversation. “I’ve got -- I brought -- are you --”

“I’m going to go get a shirt,” he said and turned to go.

“Daniel!” Jack called and he turned back. “Don’t. Come sit down.” Jack looked over at Sam. “Carter, get over it. Fraiser has ordered Daniel to go topless, so cope.”

Looking annoyed, Daniel hiked up his pants the rest of the way and tied them securely around his waist and walked over to sit down cross legged on the couch. Carter looked away and bit her lip. “Sorry,” she muttered. “I brought cookies.”

Daniel leaned forward and snagged them. “Apology accepted,” he said, grinning at her. “All we need now is milk.”

Casting his mind back to his refrigerator, Jack thought that might be a small problem. He got up and went into the kitchen. There was a jug of milk in the fridge, but its date was a week and a half past. Jack sighed. “Guys, I’m sorry, but I don’t --”

Carter was behind him in a second, staring into his refrigerator. “No milk? No wait, just decrepit milk.” She plucked the carton out of his hands and dumped it down the sink. Then she returned to his fridge and stared into it. “Colonel, you need help.”

Jack had a sudden, vivid image of weekly visits from Carter to help him properly fill his fridge.

“It’s fine, Carter. I just need a few things.”

“Milk, butter and eggs, for a start,” she said. “You’re supposed to be taking care of Daniel, but who’s going to take care of you?”

He left her in the kitchen, muttering darkly about helpless men, and went out to join Daniel, who had pulled out a book and was reading already, despite having been alone for less than five minutes. The younger man looked up as he came around the corner into the sunken living room. “She’s going all big sister on you, now, isn’t she?”

“Evidently my food supplies aren’t up to snuff,” Jack said. There was a snort from the kitchen, and Daniel grinned.

“Mama Sam will take care of that, I have no doubts,” Daniel said. “Or at least she’ll drag you to the store and bully you into fixing the problem to her standards.”

“Spectacular,” Jack said, settling down in a chair. “I can do my own shopping.”

Daniel shrugged. “You can try. So, what was that about twins?” Their conversation devolved into SGC gossip until Sam emerged from the kitchen like an avenging angel, brandishing a notepad in place of the more standard sword.

“All right, sir, I think we’re ready to stock up on some essentials.”

Jack blinked up at her. “We?” he asked.

“Yes sir. You don’t think I’m going to do this by myself, do you?”

“And what about Daniel?” he asked. Sam’s expression lost some of its fierce determination, but the archeologist bristled.

“I think I can stand to be alone for the hour or so shopping will take,” he said. “Go on, kids, have fun. Don’t kill each other.” Jack raised his eyebrows dubiously and Daniel grimaced. “Look, in the last three days, I haven’t had more time alone than it takes to pee or take a shower, and even that didn’t really feel alone because someone was waiting for me to finish.”

“Right, but --” Carter started.

“An hour won’t kill me,” he said. “Just do me a favor and bring me a cup of coffee before you go.”

Sam glanced at Jack, who nodded, and disappeared into the kitchen. Jack turned back to Daniel to find the other man giving him a startlingly conspiratorial look. “What?”

“You should thank me,” Daniel said. “Now she’ll cut the trip short, so you won’t be stuck in a grocery store half the afternoon.”

“She could go alone,” Jack suggested.

Daniel gave him a pleading look. “Give me an hour of no masks, Jack. Please?”

It was a request that couldn’t be refused. “Okay, Daniel, but I don’t promise an hour.” He pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Any problems and you can . . .” His hand strayed to his hip where his cell phone usually resided when he was out.

Daniel rolled his eyes. “I’m not ten,” he growled. “And I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself alone for whole days at a time at that age.”

Jack blinked, a little startled by the information. “You didn’t do that much, did you?” he asked.

“Sometimes,” Daniel said shrugging. “That’s not the point, Jack. Go. Shop. Begone for a while before I start throwing things.”

“Okay, Daniel, just don’t tell Fraiser I left you alone.”

“She’s a little overprotective,” Daniel said.

“Ya think?”

Carter came out of the kitchen with a huge cup of coffee. “It’s instant, Daniel, I hope that’s all right.”

“It’s fine,” Daniel said, taking it. “It beats the base coffee. Now go. I’ll see you when you get back and maybe we can watch a movie or something.” He picked up his book again. “Before you go, though, how’s Teal’c?”

“He’s fine,” Sam said. “He knows about what happened, and it’s upsetting him.”

Daniel closed his eyes. “I guess I’ll have to have a chat with him tomorrow,” he said. “This isn’t the end of the world, after all. It’s just another form of torture.”

Jack knit his brows together. Daniel seemed very cool and collected, but the other man’s eyes told a different story. Sam shrugged. “We’ll be back as soon as possible,” she said.

“I’ll be out in a second,” Jack said. “We’ll take my truck.” He handed her the keys. She glanced at Daniel, then nodded and left the house.

“What, Jack?” Daniel asked wearily.

“Are you sure you’re up to some alone time right now?”

“I think that if I don’t get some, I’ll scream,” Daniel said with a tight grin. “If your eardrums are up to it, I could start now.”

Jack raised his hands in surrender. “I’m going,” he said. “I’m gone. Back soon.”

Locking the knob behind him, he walked out to the car, hoping he wasn’t making a terrible mistake.

Once they were in the truck and moving, Jack gave her a sidelong glance. “How much do you know about Daniel’s childhood, Carter? You guys talk about stuff.”

She looked at him like he was insane. “Daniel doesn’t talk to me about things like that, sir. Both you and Teal’c probably know more about Daniel than I do. He’s very private.”

Jack nodded, sighing. He kind of figured that Daniel’s childhood hadn’t been a picnic. He’d never mentioned family apart from his parents, and all Jack really knew about them was that they died when Daniel was eight. Died in front of him, to be specific. Jack hadn’t gotten too nosy past that. He didn’t talk a lot about his own history, so it was second nature not to be overly curious about anyone else.

“I know he spent a lot of time reading,” she said.

“Ya think?” Jack replied sarcastically.

“Sorry,” she said. “I don’t think any of us is very talkative about our pasts, sir.”

“I know,” he replied, sighing. “He just occasionally says things that make me wonder a bit.” She didn’t ask and he didn’t elaborate. After a moment, he said, “It’s odd. You know Daniel’s a private person, I know Daniel’s a private person, Teal’c knows Daniel’s a private person. Everyone else who talks to him for five minutes seems to think they know everything there is to know about him. You have to actually start asking them questions to illustrate that they know nothing.”

Sam chuckled. “I did that the other day to another of the girls who was mooning over him.”

“Another one?” Jack demanded. “What is it with him?”

“Well, partly right now it’s the wounded puppy thing.”

“Daniel the spaniel, eh?”

She gave him a disapproving look. “Sha’re, Jack. A lot of women see a man who’s mourning for a lost wife as a man in need of comfort. Intimate comfort apparently.” She looked dour. “It’s kind of tacky, in my opinion.”

Jack shrugged. “Daniel gets that kind of attention from women who don’t know he’s a widower,” he said.

Sam nodded. “He’s gorgeous. And he’s cute. And he’s innocent-seeming.” She chuckled. “Women who want to mother a man want Daniel.” She tilted her head. “Women who want to dominate a man want Daniel, both for the same reason. It’s that innocence. Women who just plain want to have wildly good sex look at Daniel and salivate.”

“Really?” Jack asked, frankly surprised.

She nodded. “Don’t you listen to the women talking in the commissary?”

“As little as possible,” he said.

“That’s probably a good thing, actually,” she said thoughtfully. “You don’t want to know what they say about you.”

He turned his head sharply. “What?”

“Sir, the road!” Sam said immediately.

“What about the road?” he asked.

“Look at it, sir!” she ordered.

He turned back to face front. “It hasn’t changed much in the last two seconds, Carter.” She sat back, looking tense. “So, go on.”

“Go on with what?”

“What do they say about me?” he asked as he turned into the parking lot.

“There’s a good space,” Sam said. From her determinedly neutral expression, he gathered that he wasn’t getting any more information out of her. They got out of the truck and went into the store.


	14. Chapter 14

Daniel stood up when they had gone and went into Jack’s bathroom. Picking up the shaving mirror, he peered at the burn on his back. It seemed nearly everyone had seen it but him, and that was growing a bit irritating. Fraiser was right. It looked like someone had put an iron to his back and left the whole surface of it against his skin for a second. The only thing missing were those little round holes.

The whole thing was a brilliant reddish pink, and there were three other pink marks on his back where Rigar had shocked him. He couldn’t help wondering what would have happened if the transport shuttle the Bedrosian commander had called for hadn’t been commandeered by Teal’c. Where would he, Sam and Jack be now? Dead? In prison? Still with Rigar?

He shuddered. That moment when Jack slumped unconscious against the bars of that cage, the electrical field frying him . . . It was horrifying, but Daniel couldn’t seem to get it out of his head. The scene played over and over again. Him telling Rigar that he had to stop, that he was killing Jack, Rigar declaring loudly that it was Daniel who was killing his friend. Jack shaking as the voltage poured into him, and knowing that he could stop it if he did the unforgivable. Two things had held him back. One, he and Sam would have less of a chance of escaping without Teal’c’s unhindered help, and two, Jack wouldn’t want him to give in.

The relief he’d felt when Rigar had finally turned Jack’s cage off had been profound but short-lived. They were still in the same situation, and Rigar could kill any one of them at his whim. Either he had that level of autonomy, or he believed he did. Whichever it was wouldn’t make much difference to the person he killed. He shuddered again and realized that he had been standing in the bathroom for a long while, woolgathering. He went back into the living room and sat down again, carefully, and picked up his coffee. It was still fairly hot, so he couldn’t have been standing there too long.

Taking up his book, he tried to focus on the pages, but his mind kept drifting. He didn’t want to think about Rigar, he didn’t want to think about Bedrosia, but his thoughts wouldn’t stay away.

When he found himself wondering how long it would have taken, how much torture he could have endured before just saying what Rigar wanted to hear, he got up and found one of Jack’s opera CDs. Music and a book ought to drive his thoughts away.

He’d immersed himself sufficiently that when Jack and Sam came back he had no idea how long they’d been gone. He looked up and saw Sam looking disgruntled. She had two bags of groceries and so did Jack, but she didn’t have that pleased glow she seemed to wear when she got back from helping him and Teal’c shop. Jack, on the other hand, looked pleased as punch, and Daniel spotted a bag of pork rinds sticking out of the top of one of his sacks.

He had a feeling that not all had gone as he’d expected. He stood up. “Is that all or is there more in the truck?”

“More,” Jack said. “Don’t worry, we’ll get it.”

“I can carry a few bags of groceries,” Daniel growled.

“I doubt that very much,” Jack said as Sam went into the kitchen. “But at the moment the question isn’t whether you can, it’s whether you will, and the answer to that question is a resounding no. I left you alone for a while, but I’m not risking Fraiser’s wrath by letting you carry things.”

“Coward.”

“Where the doc’s concerned, darn tootin’. I like all my body parts in their current configuration, thank you.”

Daniel watched them bring things in and contented himself with pulling out things that needed to be refrigerated.

When they’d brought all the bags in, Jack said, “Okay, Carter, I know you won’t be happy unless you get to manage something, so why don’t you start putting stuff away for me. I’m going out to get us a pizza.”

“Pizza?” Sam expostulated. “Sir, Daniel has burns all over his torso. He needs good healthy --”

“Hawaiian,” Daniel said and Sam cut herself off, looking frustrated. “Or maybe artichoke hearts.”

“Artichoke hearts?” Jack exclaimed.

“I like them,” Daniel said defensively. “They’re good.”

“Goofy,” Jack said. “Green stuff doesn’t belong on pizzas.”

“Fine,” Daniel said. “I think my wallet’s upstairs. I’ll just --”

Jack shook his head. “I got it.”

Daniel turned around. “I thought maybe we could have two pizzas. You could get one of those All Meat Masterpieces you like so much, and we could have second one that’s half artichoke, half Hawaiian.”

Sam shook her head, apparently relenting. “Artichoke heart requires pesto sauce,” she said. “Not good to try and mix that with regular pizza sauce.”

“You’re right,” Daniel said, biting his lip. “But Jack can eat a whole pizza by himself, so --”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Three pizzas then. Leftovers aren’t a bad thing.”

He left before Daniel could offer to help pay again. Sam looked around at the bags and bags of groceries with something akin to chagrin. “So, what happened?” Daniel asked, picking up the bag of pork rinds. “This doesn’t look like your usual list of stuff.”

“We didn’t shop according to my list,” she said disgustedly. “We got there and he grabbed a cart. I pulled out my list and he ordered me, colonel to major, to put it away and watch while a pro did the grocery shopping.” Daniel bit his lip, striving to control the amusement. “We went through each aisle in order, and he grabbed what he wanted off the shelf rapidly. I don’t think it took more than twenty minutes to make a complete circuit of the store.”

“Really?” Daniel asked.

“Really,” she said, grimacing. She started unloading one of the bags, and Daniel noted that, apart from the pork rinds, there wasn’t much there that even health-conscious Sam could object to. Plenty of vegetables and fruit, some pasta, potatoes, canned soups . . . He’d already put the meat in the fridge, not sure how much of it Jack would want to freeze. Steaks, pork loin, chicken.

“So you didn’t have any say in what he bought?” She shook her head and he did laugh then, at her sour expression. “So, he’s not as helpless as you thought?” he needled.

“He explained, in words of one syllable on the ride home, that he’d had to throw nearly everything in the house away after Edora,” she said, flushing slightly. “Then there was the NID thing taking up his attention, and he’s been on base a lot for the past couple of weeks, so he just hadn’t taken the time to do a proper shopping run.”

“So he’s perfectly capable of taking care of himself?” Daniel asked.

“Apparently,” she said, pulling out a box of HoHos. “For the most part.” She tucked the box of snacks into a cupboard and looked around at the rest of it. Then she looked at him. “Daniel, you look awful. Why don’t you go back out and sit down, and I’ll bring you a glass of milk to go with those cookies.”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “If you don’t want me helping, that’s fine,” he said, hitching himself up to sit on the counter. “But I’m not going to go sit in the living room.”

“You’ll be in the way there,” she said, frowning.

He glanced from side to side. He’d actually chosen his spot very carefully. He wasn’t blocking any cupboards except with his feet. These were pretty deep counters, so he pulled his legs up and sat cross legged. “No, I’m not,” he replied.

“Daniel, you shouldn’t sit on the kitchen counter,” she protested.

“You can disinfect later to your heart’s content,” he parried.

Her eyes widened. “I didn’t mean --” He raised his eyebrows at her and she relented, laughing a little at herself. “Fine, Daniel, sit there if it makes you happy.”

“It does,” he said. “So, what movie do you want to watch?”

She pulled a face. “The colonel already decided on that,” she said. Daniel raised an eyebrow. “He wants to have a Clint Eastwood western fest.”

“Is that so bad?” Daniel asked, reflecting that there were worse things to watch in Jack’s collection. The long list of kung fu movies, for one.

Sam gave him a startled look. “I -- I wasn’t sure -- if you’re up to --”

Daniel closed his eyes and counted to ten in the Abydonian dialect of Egyptian. Then he followed it up with several more obscure languages for good measure. When he opened them again, he found that Sam was gazing at him worriedly. “Stop it,” he said.

“Stop what?” she asked anxiously.

“I am not fragile, I’m not going to break if you say the wrong thing, and watching Clint Eastwood shoot bad guys will probably be good for me,” he said, glaring at her. “The last thing I need is for you to tiptoe around me like I’m --” His voice broke and he paused, screwing up his face to regain control of his emotions. “Like I’m broken or something.”

“I don’t think you’re broken, Daniel,” she said, but with a lack of conviction in her voice that made him want to strangle her.

“Yes, you do,” he said. “Can’t you even hear yourself?”

“No, I don’t,” she protested with more strength. “I don’t think you are, but . . .”

“But what?” he snapped.

“I’m afraid . . .” She didn’t seem to be able to complete the thought immediately. “I’m afraid of saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing and making you think about . . . it.”

“Sam, even if you did, it wouldn’t be your fault,” he said.

“That doesn’t . . . I mean, if you think about it too much it could . . .”

“It could what?” he asked. “I’m a reasonably strong adult human being. I’m not going to fall to pieces.” His voice shook a little and she drew closer, looking worried. He grimaced, rolling his eyes. “Sam, have you ever considered that every time you hesitate, every time you look at me with worried eyes, I know why you’re doing it and it’s more of a reminder than anything you could say?”

Her eyes flew wide and she stared at him. “I -- I’m sorry -- I never thought --”

He swung off the counter. “You’re not going to get anything done with me in here, are you?” he said.

“No, I can . . . I’m sorry, Daniel, I’m being a twerp. Sit down. What do you want to talk about?”

He hitched himself back up and said, “What are you doing outside work these days? I haven’t heard you talking much about that.”

“Outside work?” she asked, looking startled as she started opening cupboards and finding the right places to put things. “Well, there’s the weekly dinners with you guys,” she said. “Um . . .”

“Sam, you have got to get a life,” he said, grinning.

“What do you do outside work?” she demanded.

Daniel raised his chin. “I go to a lot of movies,” he said. “I browse used bookstores and visit museums.”

“Alone?”

He nodded. “It’s kind of hard to make friends with people outside the SGC,” he said. “I can’t really tell them what I do, I can’t talk about my life, Sha’re . . .” He looked away. “Though that mattered more before . . . it’s easier to explain a dead wife to a stranger than a missing one.”

Sam nodded slowly. “I can see that.”

He snorted. He’d tried it once, making a friend, a man named Alan. He’d fallen into conversation with the man with an armful of spy thrillers at a used bookstore and had gone out for coffee with him, figuring it might be nice to have someone to talk to about normal life, someone who wasn’t interested in archeology and so wouldn’t be aware of the disgraced Dr. Daniel Jackson.

Then Alan had invited Daniel to have a drink with him the next night, and it had been an unmitigated disaster. He stuck to virgin drinks, all too aware of his own ability to hold alcohol, or rather inability. Drinks turned into dinner, which was fine. They had steak and shrimp.

Alan had suggested they go back to his place for a game of chess, and Daniel had agreed. It had been a pleasant evening, talking about current events, music, movies, games they like to play. After a couple of games of chess, just as Daniel was reflecting that he’d better be heading home, Alan had caught his hand and smiled. “Stay the night?” he’d suggested. Daniel had blinked, unsure briefly what the man was asking, then it hit home and . . . well, awkward wasn’t the word. He’d explained that not only was he not gay, he was married.

The conversation hadn’t gone well from there. Alan seemed to think that Daniel had been leading him on, and Daniel’s attempt to explain that all he wanted was friendship wasn’t received well. Daniel had left, confused and upset, and determined not to make that mistake again.

It was always awkward, though. When he talked to people in museums, the minute the conversation strayed away from the exhibit, it got hard. The normal questions were all nasty pitfalls. What do you do for a living? Are you married? What does your wife do? Though these days that was easier. Telling people his wife was dead usually ended the conversations quickly when the person he was talking to didn’t know what to say past expressing sympathy, though occasionally women would get very curious at that point, and Daniel would be forced to claim some prior engagement to avoid the prying questions. Why did people feel as if they had the right to demand answers to personal questions?

Sometimes he really missed Abydos. There had been men there who had been his friends, family, people who cared without demands.

He realized he’d gone silent, but Sam was still putting away groceries. “Sorry,” he said. “Woolgathering.”

“Penny for your thoughts?” she said.

“Just remembering Abydos, and the people I left behind there.”

“You miss them?”

“Of course I do,” he said. “I lived there for more than a year. I don’t think I could go back now, though. Not without Sha’re. I failed her, I failed Kasuf, and everything there would remind me of that brief . . .” His throat closed, his eyes misted over and he bit his lip. “I’m sorry, Sam, you don’t want to hear about --” He looked up, blinking the moisture out of his eyes to see Sam, looking distinctly misty herself, gazing at him.

“You didn’t fail her, Daniel,” she said. “Sometimes there’s nothing that can be done.”

“If I hadn’t let curiosity get the better of me . . .”

“Earth would be controlled by the Goa’uld,” Sam said. “I am utterly convinced that one of the mandatory factors for a successful defense of Earth is a Daniel Jackson active in the SGC.” Daniel knit his eyebrows, not sure how that was supposed to make him feel better. She looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “Truthfully, though, your contribution isn’t as great as that of a Sam Carter who joined the military and cut her hair.” Her face crinkled with amusement. “It seems as if the fate of the universe depends on the length of my hair.”

“Better get a buzz cut,” Jack said, dropping his keys on the counter and putting down three pizza boxes. “Better yet, shave it all off. We’ll kick the Goa’uld’s asses in no time.”

Daniel couldn’t help laughing at the affronted look on Sam’s face. Pizza, beer and Clint Eastwood took up of the rest of the evening apart from a brief medical break. When Daniel came back from the bathroom, Jack applied the burn cream without comment while they watched the movie. Finally, Daniel couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore and turned in.


	15. Chapter 15

Daniel had gone to bed at half past ten, right in the middle of _A Few Dollars More_ , so when he wasn’t up by seven, Jack went in to check on him. He was still out, snoring softly, so Jack went back downstairs and had breakfast. Calling the base, he let Hammond and Fraiser know that they’d likely be in later than usual. Hammond told him that they could stay away all day if they saw fit. Fraiser said she’d come by and check on him in the evening if they didn’t show up.

The other man came downstairs at around eight, dressed for work but hair tousled and eyes still vague from sleep. “Why didn’t you wake me?” he asked. “We’re late.”

“Got a question for you, Daniel,” Jack said.

“What?”

“Fraiser’s going to insist that you keep your shirt off again today,” he said. “And at the mountain, she has the ability to check up on you. Do you really want to wander around the mountain shirtless?”

Daniel’s eyes went through a whole range of emotional reactions, then the man turned away and picked up the phone. Jack waited while Fraiser confirmed his predictions, then, as Daniel hung up the phone, said, “Hammond said we could take the day off, and the doc says she’ll come here to look at you. Why don’t we just hang out here today?”

The archeologist looked torn. “I didn’t bring anything to work on,” Daniel said finally.

“So don’t work for the day,” he said. “Or we could go in, you could be summarily stripped by Fraiser and everyone on base who happens into your office will be able to see that you’ve been working out and the effects of the burns.”

“I’m convinced, Jack,” he said hastily. “But . . . you’re going to stay?”

Jack nodded, keeping his reaction Daniel’s extreme concern that he might be thinking about going to work off his face. “Figured I’d play hooky too.”

The relieved expression on Daniel’s face made Jack wonder how well the other man had handled being alone for forty-five minutes the day before. He’d seemed fine when they got home, blaring music and reading a book. Of course, the music was opera, which Daniel didn’t much like. Jack shrugged. “So, why don’t you go change into something more comfortable and less . . . hugging, and we can just relax.”

Daniel glanced down at himself. “Okay, I’ll go get changed.”

“Have you done you done your medication yet?”

The other man bit his lip, looking suddenly guilty. “I forgot. I’ll be back shortly.” He disappeared for a few minutes, and Jack started cooking. When he came back downstairs in another pair of loose sweats, Jack had a cheese and onion omelet waiting for him with toast and sausage, a cup of orange juice and a steaming cup of coffee.

As he’d expected, Daniel made a beeline for the coffee. Jack took the tube of cream from his hand and began slathering it on his back. The three lesser burns weren’t quite as livid today, but the big one was still pretty bad. When he was done, he found his hands shaking at the thought of that bastard holding Daniel down against a table with an active shock stick. That was bad enough all by itself without the sexual attack. It was hard to get past having someone deliberately set out to hurt you.

“Quit staring at my back, Jack,” Daniel said, turning and sitting down at the table.

“Who’s staring?” Jack replied, but he took the hint and started washing the dishes he’d used to make breakfast.

After eating, Daniel took up his book again and Jack pulled out the stack of bills he was always meaning to get to later. Sam called around ten to let them know that Teal’c was out of kelnoreem and back to work and Nyan was apparently having some success with the primer Daniel had given him. Glancing quickly at Daniel to see if he minded, Jack asked Sam and Teal’c to dinner that evening.

When he’d hung up, he looked up again. “Daniel, do you mind if I ask the doc, too?” If she was coming out anyway, she might as well stay if she wanted to, and Daniel was up to it.

“Sure,” Daniel said and returned to his book.

Jack put the call through to Janet Fraiser, and she agreed provided she could bring Cassie. Not seeing that as a problem since they were all fond of her, he agreed. They didn’t see as much of her as he would prefer. She must be at least fourteen or thereabouts now. That was the only trouble with kids -- they made you feel old when they started getting older.

He made lunch and they ate it on the deck out back. Afterwards, Daniel flopped face down on Jack’s sofa and fell fast asleep, which made TV watching a bit challenging.

Around three, Jack set some steaks marinating and started making a potato salad. As long as they were all coming over and the weather was cooperating, he figured they might as well make it a proper barbecue. He gave Sam a call and told her to bring something for desert and started prepping the garlic bread.

Daniel came into the kitchen around four o’clock scratching his head and looking muzzy. “What are you doing?” he asked.

Jack looked down at the green beans he was trimming and chopping and said, “Getting ready for dinner.”

“Jack, it’s not even four yet, is it?”

Taking a glance at the clock on the microwave, Jack said, “It’s three-fifty-eight. We’re expecting guests at six, and it’s always better to have your prep work done early.”

Daniel looked around at the kitchen. “I wouldn’t know,” he said. “I generally stuff something into the microwave.”

Jack nodded. “I figured as much. I’m surprised Sam doesn’t try to reform your eating habits.”

“I want a shower,” Daniel said, yawning. “I always feel grungy after sleeping during the day.” He turned to leave, but then he stopped. “Actually, I always feel grungy after sleeping. Period.”

“Be careful, and come down with your medication.”

He heard a mutter that sounded like agreement and went back to fixing dinner. About a half hour later, he heard Daniel coming back down the hall. He’d been keeping an eye on the clock, because he’d been warned that Daniel might have a problem with compulsive cleaning after an experience like his. A half hour seemed pretty normal, though.

He’d largely finished his prep work, so he gestured Daniel to go on back into the living room and followed him. He put the medicine on his back and they sat down. “You want to see the end of _A Few Dollars More?”_

Daniel blinked briefly. “How about everything from about ten minutes in?”

Jack snorted and started the movie, then tossed Daniel the remote. “Figure out where you left off.”

Daniel was still watching the movie when Jack went into the kitchen to start pulling out the place settings. He set the table and had started putting out the condiments when he abruptly found Daniel at his side in an agitated state. “Cassie’s here!” the archeologist exclaimed, hugging his chest.

“What? Of course she is. I invited Janet to dinner.”

“Jack!” There was a load of meaning behind that simple syllable, but Jack was feeling pretty dense.

“What, Daniel?”

“I’m not exactly dressed!” he said urgently, and Jack felt the urge to laugh start bubbling up. He suppressed it, knowing that it would only make Daniel more upset.

“It’s not a big deal, Daniel. Her mother knows you’re going to be shirtless, and she clearly doesn’t mind.”

Daniel stared at him for a long second, then spoke through gritted teeth. “I mind!”

Jack opened his mouth, but at that moment the doorbell rang. He realized as he passed Daniel that his arms weren’t in their usual protective position, he looked more like he was trying to cover himself. He wondered if Fraiser would relent for the sake of the man’s dignity. Somehow he doubted it.

Unless of course she had forgotten that the corollary to eating dinner with Daniel and Jack would be eating dinner with a shirtless man.

He opened the door to find that both Cassie and Fraiser were dressed extremely casually, as if to make it seem normal that Daniel was without his shirt. “Hi, Jack,” Cassie said cheerfully. “Where’s Daniel?”

Jack turned around and peered into the kitchen, but Daniel had vanished. “I’m not sure.”

* * *

Daniel shut the bedroom door as he heard Jack inviting them in. He’d be damned if he was going to walk around in sweats and no shirt in front of Cassie. He found the loosest pair of slacks he owned and a loose cotton t-shirt. Sam would probably complain that they didn’t match, but he didn’t care right now. He left his room and started down the stairs to find Janet starting up them.

“I thought so,” she said. “Daniel, take that off right now.”

“No,” he replied, coming to a stop in front of her.

She blinked, looking startled. “Daniel, I’m not trying to --”

He bent close and spoke quietly. “Janet, I’ve kept it off all day, okay? I just am not going to go shirtless in front of Cassie.”

Pursing her lips, she shook her head. “Daniel, it’s not --”

“I won’t!” he said, his tone firm. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Okay. But I need to examine you. Would you rather do it now or after dinner?”

He bit his lip, torn. Finally he said, “Before. I’d rather not have it looming all evening.”

She nodded and they went back upstairs.


	16. Chapter 16

Jack looked up from the game he was playing with Cassie as Fraiser came down alone. He raised an eyebrow, wondering if Daniel needed him, but she shook her head slightly.

Cassie, missing the byplay, looked up and asked, “Where’s Daniel?”

“He’ll be down in a few minutes,” Fraiser said, keeping her voice light. She looked at the chess game. “Who’s winning?”

“I am,” Cassie said. “I think.”

“Don’t count your pawns before they’re --” Jack ran out of scrambled proverb and cast around wildly before shrugging and giving up. Both Cassie and her mother were looking at him oddly. “Never mind,” he said, making his move.

Sam and Teal’c arrived a few minutes later, and Jack left them in the living room with Fraiser and Cassie to run upstairs. He knocked on Daniel’s door. “You okay?”

He heard a cough, and then Daniel opened the door. His eyes were a little red and he looked very upset. “I’m fine,” he said. “I just need a few minutes to pull myself together.”

“I just wanted to know if I should start the steaks.”

Daniel took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. “I’ll go wash my face and be down in a minute.”

It was at that moment that Jack noticed that Daniel was wearing a shirt. “Daniel . . .” he said chidingly, but the other man smiled wryly.

“I’ve been given special dispensation,” he said. “I’ll be down soon.”

“Okay.” Jack went down the stairs only to find Teal’c waiting at the bottom. “Daniel will be down in a minute,” he said.

“I wish to speak with you, O’Neill,” Teal’c said somberly. Of course, Teal’c said nearly everything somberly, but long association with the Jaffa enabled Jack to perceive that Teal’c really was upset.

“Do we need privacy?” he asked.

Teal’c merely raised an eyebrow and said, “Indeed.”

“Okay. Grab your hat.” Jack went into the kitchen and pulled out the steaks that were still in their marinade. As they passed through the living room on the way to the deck, he said, “Ladies, would you mind putting the food out on the table? And start the oven, would you, Sam? Ten minutes for the garlic bread, okay?” Teal’c followed him out to the grill and he said, “Okay, what’s on your mind?”

Teal’c waited for Jack to get all of the steaks onto the grill, then said, “Why did you not tell me of what happened to DanielJackson? Why was I forced to learn of it from another?”

“It was an oversight,” Jack said, grimacing. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about it, I was so focused on keeping Daniel on an even keel.”

Teal’c shook his head. “It is not sufficient explanation, O’Neill.”

“I don’t have a better one,” Jack said. “I should have told you the minute you came out of iso.” Teal’c’s eyebrow raised. “Or had Janet tell you while you were in iso, though I’m not sure she would have agreed. I’m not making excuses, I’m just telling you what happened.”

Teal’c uttered a few incomprehensible phrases, from the tone Jack guessed they were curses. Then he said, “And now the --” again with the incomprehensible words “-- is dead, and I can do nothing to avenge the stain on my friend’s honor.”

“Whoa, there, Teal’c,” Jack said. “Daniel’s honor is still shiny and clear as crystal. This doesn’t say anything about him.”

Teal’c blinked a couple of times, then nodded thoughtfully. “No, it does not,” he said. “You are correct, O’Neill.” Jack nodded, glad not to have to argue with the Jaffa. Arguing with him made his head hurt. Sometimes he was convinced that every member of his team was smarter than he was. “However, our honor is stained because we permitted this to happen.”

Jack paused in the middle of flipping a steak. He bit his lip and sighed. “Yup,” he said simply.

“And there is nothing we can do to expunge it.”

“Nope.” Jack flipped another steak, reflecting that this wasn’t the most cheerful conversation he’d had in a while.

“How is DanielJackson?”

“He’s upset,” Jack said. “But he seems to be coping okay so far.”

“Why has he not come down?”

Jack shrugged. It wasn’t really his place to tell Teal’c everything about Daniel’s emotional state. “He’ll come down soon.”

Teal’c looked back at the house. “He is down now,” the Jaffa said.

Jack turned to see Daniel walking towards them. “I’ve observed that there is a cultural tradition in middle American households concerning the act of barbecuing,” Daniel said as he reached them.

“Indeed?” Teal’c asked.

“Yes,” Daniel said. “The men all gather around the grill, as if it takes three or four men to get the meat done properly, while the women gather at some point distant from the grill and mess about with the other food.”

“Is that why you’re out here?” Jack asked.

Daniel grinned. “When in Rome.”

“Ah,” Teal’c said. “Segregation of the genders during meal preparation,” he said. “I have observed that in my watching of television.”

“Yeah, something like that,” Daniel said, a grin tugging at his lips. “You know, you shouldn’t necessarily take movies and TV shows as representative of American life.”

“Why do people watch them if they do not represent reality, DanielJackson?” Teal’c asked.

“It’s called escapism, Teal’c,” Daniel said. “Watching an unrealistic version of life on television fulfills a need people have to --”

“If you two are going to have a deep conversation about the meaning of _The Brady Bunch_ , count me out, please,” Jack said.

“Okay,” Daniel said, giving him a shrewd look. “How about _Gunsmoke?_ Or _The A-Team?”_

Jack pulled himself up straight. “Hey, _The A-Team_ is real life.”

“Jack,” Daniel said reprovingly.

“What, Daniel? It is.”

“Fine,” Daniel replied. “What about _Mission Impossible?”_ Jack just looked at him and Teal’c raised an eyebrow. The archeologist shrugged. “Okay, I concede that one.”

Jack grinned. “You know, the general should say that at the beginning of all our missions,” he said. “If any of your team is caught or killed, we will disavow all knowledge of your existence.” He knew he’d misquoted it, but the essence was there.

Daniel looked at him like he was crazy, and Teal’c transferred his raised eyebrow stare to him. “I really don’t think so,” Daniel said.

“No, come on,” Jack said. “It would add flavor.”

“I don’t think I want that kind of flavor, thanks,” Daniel replied.

“Don’t be such a wuss!” Jack said, laughing.

Daniel narrowed his eyes slightly. “I’m a wuss?”

“Yeah!” Jack declared. “A wussy geek!”

“Really?” Daniel demanded, his eyes even narrower.

“Indeed, you are not, DanielJackson,” Teal’c said. “O’Neill!” Teal’c turned a disapproving glare on him.

Jack rolled his eyes. “Come on, Teal’c,” he said, gazing at the Jaffa, attempting to get across the point that Daniel would react better to all of them if they just kept behaving normally. “I mean look at the guy. He lives in a museum.”

Daniel’s eyes snapped. “I do what?”

“Your apartment, Daniel,” Jack said. “It might as well be a museum of archeology.”

“That’s not exactly shocking, Jack. I’m an archeologist.”

“Well, I’m a soldier, Daniel. I don’t line my walls with guns.”

Daniel blinked a few times, then gave him a snarky grin. He was getting better at those. “What about the six coffee table books about fighter planes?” he asked. Jack opened his mouth but he didn’t get a chance to reply. “And the model of a . . . some space thing . . . on your kitchen counter? And the print of Mars on your living room wall? And the telescope on the roof deck? And you do have a gun cabinet, I’ve seen it.”

“That’s not the point,” Jack said.

“So I’ve got an archeology museum in my house, you’ve got an aeronautics and space museum. We’re even!”

Jack flipped the last steak onto the plate he had ready. “And we’re ready for dinner,” he said equably.

Daniel stared for a moment then grinned. “Okay,” he said, picking up the steaks and turning back towards the house.

Teal’c looked back and forth between them, clearly puzzled. As Daniel took the plate inside, the Jaffa took hold of Jack’s arm. Jack paused and turned to him. “I do not understand, O’Neill. You are concerned about DanielJackson, yet you insult him.”

“When don’t I insult him, Teal’c?” Jack asked reasonably.

Teal’c looked thoughtful for a moment. “When you think he is dying, when he is badly injured, when he has been severely traumatized as he has been recently.” There was a pointed tone to that last comment as if Teal’c were making a point.

Jack shook his head. “See, I didn’t insult him when he was going through withdrawals from the sarcophagus because that would have killed his self-esteem.”

“And how is now different?” the Jaffa asked.

He let out an explosive sigh and said, “I’m not sure how to explain it, Teal’c. But does he seem like I’ve hit him below the belt?”

“You did not hit him at all, O’Neill,” Teal’c said and Jack closed his eyes, still occasionally frustrated by Teal’c’s periodic inability to comprehend figures of speech.

Daniel stuck his head out the door. “You guys coming in?”

“Sure, just a second, Daniel.”

“It’s getting cold,” the archeologist said, going back in.

Jack turned to Teal’c. “There, does he seem upset?”

“No,” Teal’c said. “That is what puzzles me. I do not understand why.” The Jaffa stared at him, waiting for an explanation that Jack wasn’t sure how to give.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Jack said, earning a frustrated look from Teal’c. “Look, give me some time to think on it, okay?”

“Certainly, O’Neill.”

They went into the house and sat down with the others. Daniel seemed very much himself, and Jack puzzled over a way to explain why this time was different. It had to do with Daniel’s internal reactions, and how Jack interpreted them . . . which made it very hard to put into words. When he suffered from withdrawals, he had needed to be reassured constantly that they didn’t hate him for what he had done . . . and that was it. Daniel hadn’t done anything this time. In both instances he had been victimized by a ruthless individual with no consideration for what they were doing to him, but Daniel himself had taken no action for which he felt ashamed. If Rigar had broken him, which Jack didn’t believe was likely or even possible, the case might be different.

Now he needed things to be as normal as possible, so he could get past what had happened. When he needed extra support, his friends would know, but other than that, he needed ordinary behavior out of all of them.

When he explained that to Teal’c in the kitchen after dinner, the Jaffa nodded pensively. “Should I explain this to Major Carter as well?” he asked.

Jack raised his eyebrows, contemplating Sam’s behavior this evening. “I don’t know. She seems to have gotten it by now.”

“Gotten what?” Sam asked as she came in with a pile of dishes. “You’d better hurry, sir, if you want to have any hope of beating Cassie at that chess game. Daniel’s out there giving her advice.”

“Hey!” he called, walking out and down the stairs into the living room. Cassie and Daniel were sitting in the same chair and she was leaning up against him. He looked up inquisitively as Jack came in. “That’s not fair. Two against one.”

“It’s all about learning, Jack,” Daniel said disingenuously. “I’m just teaching Cassie a few tricks she didn’t know yet.”

“Again with the not fair,” Jack replied, looking down at the board. “You never try to teach me anything.”

Daniel dimpled up at him. “You know what they say about old dogs, Jack,” he said. Fraiser had to turn away to hide her laugh, not that there was much point since he could hear it.

“Thanks, Daniel,” Jack said, grimacing, and went on to beat Cassie despite her alliance with Daniel.

“There wasn’t much we could do, I guess,” Cassie said practically. “I’d already put myself into a corner.”

“But next time . . .” Daniel said.

“Next time I won’t make so many mistakes.” She leaned up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I miss you guys. Why don’t you come over more often?”

“You know they’re busy, Cassie,” Fraiser said reprovingly.

The girl gave her mother a disbelieving look. “Sam comes over,” she said. “Don’t they all have the same schedule?”

“Not exactly,” Fraiser said. “Can we talk about this later, Cassie?”

“But --”

Daniel cleared his throat and both of them looked at him. “Cassie, did you know that I am one of only three or four people on Earth who can read Goa’uld?” Cassie nodded, her brows knitting. “We get a lot of stuff in that needs to be read, so I spend a lot of time translating.”

Cassie sighed. “Why don’t you teach more people?” she asked.

“Well, there are only so many people that are allowed to know about what we do,” he replied. “And of those people, there only so many who would be good at translation.” She was looking at him with skeptical eyes, and Jack was glad Daniel was explaining it and not him. “Besides, I go off . . . on trips more often than the others do,” he added.

Cassie’s eyes widened. “You do?” she asked. Daniel nodded. The girl looked up at Carter. “He does?”

Sam nodded. “Actually, he does,” she said.

“But why?” Cassie asked, sounding confused. “He’s the only one of you who isn’t a soldier. Doesn’t that make it more dangerous for him?” Jack nodded without thinking, and was rewarded with a glare from Daniel.

“I go out with other teams, Cassie, not alone,” Daniel explained. “I’m fine, really. It’s not a problem.”

She still looked dubious, and Jack sympathized with her. He hated it when Daniel was out with other teams. He always had this strong suspicion that other commanders didn’t know how thoroughly they had to look after this particular archeologist. “So then why doesn’t Jack come over more often?”

“He’s second in command at the SGC,” Daniel said. “That involves a lot of extra work.”

Cassie looked crestfallen. “Oh,” she said in a small voice. Jack bit his lip. She was good. He knew what she was doing, and it was still getting to him.

Daniel looked up at him. “We’ll both try to make more time, though,” he said.

Fraiser stood up. “Well, I think it’s time for us to be getting home. Cassie has school tomorrow, and I have work. Daniel, remember what I told you.”

Jack blinked and looked at Daniel, who looked shuttered again. The archeologist nodded and stood up with Cassie. “Good night,” he said. She gave him a very ginger hug. Jack saw them out while Sam Daniel and Teal’c stayed in the living room. He returned to find silence where ordinarily there would be a lot of talking.

“What did Dr. Fraiser tell you, DanielJackson?” Teal’c asked.

Daniel blinked and looked up as if startled to find himself being addressed. He sat forward and started peeling his shirt off. “That I’m healing very well thanks to the fact that I’m following doctor’s orders,” he said. “And I have another day to go at least before the burn on my back is ready to be enclosed in fabric for any length of time.” He sounded disgusted.

“So I guess you won’t be coming in tomorrow,” Sam said.

“Not unless I want to show off my injuries to anyone on base who happens to come into my office,” Daniel said. Sam shot Jack a look as if reminding him of their conversation the day before. Jack had a sudden image of all sorts of people finding excuses to visit Daniel in his office.

“Nope, we’ll play hooky one more day,” Jack said.

“I have things that need to get done,” Daniel said fretfully.

“One more day won’t be the end of the world, Daniel,” Sam reassured him.

“Indeed, it will not,” Teal’c said. “You should take the day to rest, and perhaps meditate.”

Daniel shrugged, and squinted his eyes. “I hate this,” he said.

“It will soon pass.” Teal’c rose. “I am afraid that Major Carter and I must be going as well. I must return to the base and enter kelnoreem.”

Daniel nodded and remained seated, waving to them as they left the room. Jack shut and locked the door behind them, then returned to Daniel who was still sitting in the chair, legs crossed, looking distant. “You okay?”

“Not really,” Daniel said and Jack raised his eyebrows. “Sam keeps tiptoeing around me as if she’s afraid she’s going to sneeze wrong and I’ll fall to pieces. Teal’c was looking at me like I’m an injured friend who’s never going to get well.”

“I talked to Teal’c,” Jack said.

“You what?” Daniel looked sharply up at him, expression both angry and surprised. The surprise was expected, the anger wasn’t.

“I talked to him. He asked me why I was acting the way I was out there on the deck, and I told him, that’s all.”

“Oh.” Daniel’s anger seemed to evaporate. “I’m not broken,” he said after a moment.

“Yeah, I know,” Jack said.

“I’m not even really bent,” Daniel added almost defiantly.

“Well . . . Daniel, you’ve always been a little bent.” Daniel’s eyes widened with shock. “I mean, how many guys get off on dead languages?”

“Jack, that’s not the point!” Daniel growled.

Jack nodded. “I know that, too,” he replied. “But it distracted you nicely, didn’t it?” Daniel gave him a sour glare. “Look, Daniel, Teal’c understands a little better now, and Carter’s just a soft touch. Be normal for a while and she’ll get over it.”

Daniel sighed. “I talked to her about it yesterday, and she seemed a little less . . . solicitous . . . tonight. It’s just . . . I want to stop thinking about it. And they won’t let me stop thinking about it.”

“Believe me,” Jack said, catching his friend’s eye, “I understand. And you’re going to do a lot of thinking about it. You won’t be able to help it for a while. It’s a recent experience and a pretty damned intense one at that. But as time passes, you’ll have other things to thing about. You’ll move on.”

“Can’t I move on now?” Daniel asked.

“It doesn’t work that way.”

“Why not?”

Jack sighed. “I’ve never figured that out.”

They were silent for a few moments, then Daniel let out an earsplitting yawn. Squeezing his eyes shut for a couple of seconds, he bit his lip. “I think it’s time for me to go to bed,” he said.

“Yeah, me too,” Jack replied. “I’ll just lock up and see you in the morning.”

Daniel nodded and went upstairs.


	17. Chapter 17

The next day was very much the same. Daniel read most of the day, Jack watched some TV and got some things done around the house that he’d been putting off. Daniel’s midday nap didn’t last nearly as long. As evening drew on, though, Daniel seemed to get agitated. He kept looking up from his book, or getting up and going into the kitchen but not doing anything there.

Finally, Jack said, “What’s up, Daniel?”

“Janet should be here any time now,” Daniel said from the front hall, and Jack abruptly understood. Daniel knew another examination was coming, and he was clearly uneasy about it.

“Come back and sit down,” Jack said. “Pacing around isn’t going to make you feel any better.”

For once, the archeologist followed his instructions, leaving Jack wondering why he could never seem to do so in the field. He settled in a chair and started fidgeting. He caught Jack’s eye on him and consciously stilled the nervous movement. “I don’t know why I’m being so stupid,” he said.

“You’re not being stupid, Daniel,” Jack said patiently. “Just take a couple of deep breaths and let it go. You can’t make it go away, so there’s no point in fussing about it.”

“You’re one to talk,” Daniel observed. Jack strove to look innocent, and as if he had no idea what Daniel was talking about. “You, who gripe and complain every time you’re in the infirmary for longer than five minutes.”

Jack shrugged. “What do you want for dinner?”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“I am that I am. Very perceptive of you. Now what do you want for dinner?”

“I think you’re probably the worst patient Janet has at the SGC,” Daniel said. “Hands down.”

Jack stood up. “That’s it, you’re getting mystery food for dinner.”

“Jack, you’re talking to an archeologist. I’ve eaten all sorts of really odd things. Nothing you could produce from that kitchen is going to be a problem.”

Jack gave him a beady eyed look and disappeared into the kitchen. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. “You want to get that, Daniel?” Jack called

* * *

Daniel was on his feet and halfway to the door before he remembered his less than fully clad state. “Jack, I’m not dressed.”

“It’s Janet, Daniel,” Jack said. “Don’t be a wuss.”

Rolling his eyes, Daniel went and got the door where he found two young men in very nice suits standing on the porch with briefcases. Daniel saw both their eyes widen as they took in his lack of shirt. “Can I help you?” he asked.

One of them stepped forward. “My name is Michael Campbell. I wanted to ask, have you found Jesus Christ?”

Daniel blinked at the boy who was holding out his hand in a very friendly manner. “Um . . . now is really not a good time,” he said. “And this isn’t my house.” Ordinarily he might invite them in just to listen to their demagoguery, but he just wasn’t in the mood and Jack would probably shoot them both if they stuck around.

“Well, can I leave some literature with you?” Campbell asked, reaching down towards his briefcase.

Daniel smiled. “I already have a copy of the book of Mormon.” Campbell raised an eyebrow. “I’ve read it. Twice.”

“Are you Mormon?” the other young man asked.

Shaking his head, Daniel leaned against the door frame. “I’ve also read the Koran, the writings of Confucius, the Buddhist gospel, the Bible, the Apocrypha . . .” He paused to take a breath and noticed the glazed look on Campbell’s partner’s face. “I’m an agnostic.”

Campbell smiled suddenly. “We should talk,” he said eagerly, and Daniel guessed that he scented a possible convert.

Chuckling slightly, he said, “Among other things, I’m an anthropologist.”

Campbell blinked. “You’re a professional agnostic, then?”

“I guess you could say that,” he said, grinning. Campbell seemed intrigued, but his friend looked uncomfortable. “So are you from around here, or are you on mission from somewhere else?”

“I’m from Philadelphia,” Campbell said. “Steve here is from Dallas.”

Daniel nodded to Steve. “I’m afraid I’m a bit of a waste of time.”

Steve started to turn away, but Campbell looked embarrassed and said, “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”

Daniel shrugged. “Sure. Don’t promise to answer.”

“What happened? Why are you burned like that?”

Daniel looked down at his naked chest and flushed. “Oh, that. Um . . . I had an accident with some electrical equipment. That’s why . . . the doctor said burns need to breathe . . .” He shrugged, then noticed Janet pulling up. “And here she is now.”

“Who?” They both turned and saw Janet getting out of her car. She was still in uniform, and she looked to be surprised that Daniel had company.

“My doctor,” Daniel said.

Jack came up behind him. “What are you doing?” he asked. “Where’s Fraiser?”

“She just got here,” Daniel said, nodding towards where she was coming up the walk. “This is Michael and this is Steve.”

Jack looked from one to the other and at their briefcases. “They’re Mormons, Daniel.”

“I know that, Jack,” Daniel said.

“So why are you talking to them, Daniel?”

Steve had taken Campbell by the arm and was drawing him down the steps, eyes on Jack. Daniel was amused by the reaction. Clearly Steve was a perceptive individual. Michael Campbell was, however, still curious. “You’d better go,” Daniel said. “And remember, I don’t live here.” They were moving off down the path, when Daniel thought of something. “Hey, Michael, wait just a minute.”

The pair paused and Daniel went back inside, sorted out a business card from his wallet, and went out again. “Here.” Campbell took it and grinned.

“What are you doing, Daniel?” Jack demanded as they headed down the path, passing Janet. He sounded exasperated and just shy of despairing. “Those people knock on your door, interrupt your life, proselytize . . . you _don’t_ give them your business card.”

Daniel pushed up his glasses. “If I don’t want to talk to them, I’ll just tell them so and they’ll leave. Michael seems to have a decent mind.”

“You know, Daniel, they’re going to come back here. Thanks a bunch.”

“Actually, Jack, that’s why I gave them my business card,” Daniel said, keeping his tone sweet and reasonable. “And you intimidated Steve just by standing there. I don’t think they’ll be back.”

“Oh.” Jack looked slightly mollified. “Hi doc.”

“Hello, colonel,” she said. “Daniel, are you ready?”

Daniel looked at her and realized that the pair of missionaries had distracted him so completely that he’d almost forgotten why Janet had come. “Yeah,” he said, feeling his shoulders slump. “Let’s go.”

She examined his burns first. “It looks like you’ve come along far enough that you can reasonably start wearing shirts again, but make sure they’re loose -- and keep to natural fibers.”

“I do anyway,” Daniel said, relieved.

She nodded. “Now, I’m sorry, but I need to --”

He gritted his teeth. “I know.” He already had his pants off so she could look at the burns on his groin, so he just bent over the bed like he had last night. He thumped his forehead down against the bed’s surface, trying not to feel like she was violating him. It would probably be different if there had been any kind of salaciousness to Rigar’s attack, but it was as impersonal as Janet was being.

She finished up quickly and said, “I think you’re doing fine, Daniel. I don’t think I’ll have to look again for another couple of weeks unless you have pain or blood.”

He stood up and she turned her back for him to pull his pants back on. It was an odd thing. She could look at him naked, but she always turned away when he was getting dressed or undressed. One of those odd cultural norms. Watching somebody in the act of dressing or undressing was rude.

“Please continue with the ointment for another week, and then you can discontinue as long as there’s no soreness. If you do have signs of bleeding or experience any pain --”

“I’ll tell you,” he said. She broke off, looking startled by his interruption, but an unexpected surge of emotion threatened to overwhelm him. He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Janet, I’m -- please understand, I can’t handle this right now.”

She nodded slowly. “All right, Daniel. I’ll go.” She smiled up at him tentatively. “I’ll want to see that burn in two days, all right?”

He nodded. He was hanging onto his emotions with tenterhooks, and he just wanted her to go. She reached out and squeezed his arm gently, then left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Daniel stood quite still in the center of the room, struggling to maintain his composure. If he broke down while she was still in the house, she might hear and come back up. He didn’t want that. He couldn’t cope with that. After several minutes, he heard the front door open then close again.

He continued to stand motionless for a moment longer, then it started in his gut . . . a powerful surge of emotions, anger, fear, humiliation, grief, all tumbled together in a roiling mess. His fists clenched, but he could not control it. He felt a sharp pain as he fell to his knees. Hot tears started coursing down his cheeks, and he wrapped his arms around his chest, unable to prevent the shuddering sobs that ran through him.


	18. Chapter 18

Jack saw Fraiser off after she gave him the skinny on what Daniel needed to do for himself. He evidently hadn’t been able to listen to it himself, and Fraiser seemed to thing he was on the edge of some kind of breakdown. Jack figured he’d give Daniel a few minutes’ privacy, then if he didn’t come down after a while, he’d go up to check on him.

He went back to making dinner, popping the potatoes into the oven. Ordinarily he didn’t do this much cooking, but when he was feeding a healing teammate, it was better to overdo than to underdo. He didn’t need Fraiser coming down on him.

After about fifteen minutes, he decided that he’d better not wait any longer. He went up the stairs and knocked lightly on the door. Receiving no audible response, he opened the door, half-expecting to find that Daniel had gone to take a shower or something. Instead, he found his archeologist on the floor huddled in the corner between the bed and the wall, arms wrapped around his legs and eyes pressed to his knees.

“Daniel?” he said softly. The other man hunched more tightly in on himself, and Jack walked over to him, lowering himself to the floor, careful of his knees. “Daniel,” he said. “What is it?”

There was no response. Daniel’s shoulders were shaking, and Jack could see that he was trying his level best to be silent about this breakdown. Not good. Not good at all.

Giving a heave, he shoved the bed to the side and slid into the gap, putting his arms around Daniel, who seemed too surprised by this sudden change of arrangements to react quickly. “It’s okay, Daniel,” he said. “It’s okay. You’re safe, you’re okay.”

Daniel didn’t relax against him, but he didn’t pull away. Jack started rocking his friend, continuing to murmur reassurances. Eventually, Daniel’s muscles lost some of their tension and he leaned against Jack, letting himself be comforted. Jack held him until he pulled away.

“I’m sorry,” he said thickly.

Jack reached out and flicked him on the ear.

Daniel turned sharply, eyes startled. “What was that for?”

“Quit apologizing,” Jack said. “You’re not doing anything wrong.” Daniel gave him a dubious look. “Come on, let’s get you to bed. We can talk in the morning.”

“About what? What a wuss I am?”

Jack grimaced. “You’re not a wuss, Daniel. You know damned well I was teasing you this afternoon.”

Daniel blinked owlishly at him as he sat down on the bed. “I know. But I am. I keep falling apart like this.”

“This has happened before?” Jack asked, startled.

“Not this bad,” Daniel said. “But you’ve seen me.”

“This is normal,” Jack said. “Completely normal. Now, where are your glasses?”

“Um . . .”

Jack started looking around and found them sitting under the bed, fortunately unscathed. Daniel was pulling off his pants and climbing into bed. “Good night, Daniel,” he said.

Then he went downstairs and rescued the overcooked batch of potatoes au gratin from further burning, popped a couple of pieces of pizza in the microwave and went back upstairs to read a book and listen in case Daniel had any more problems during the night. When he went to bed, he left his door open, knowing that any sound from Daniel’s room would awaken him.

* * *

Daniel awoke late in the night to gritty eyes, a stuffy head and a headache. There was also a gnawing sensation in his gut that suggested he needed to eat something. Groaning quietly, he swung his legs out of the bed and pulled on a pair of sweats. The bed was at an odd angle, and he didn’t remember eating dinner . . .

Jack appeared in the doorway clad only in a t-shirt and boxers, blinking sleepily at him, and Daniel suddenly remembered the scene he’d made. Pinching the bridge of his nose and reaching out for his glasses, Daniel said, “Please tell me I dreamed that?”

“What?” Jack asked.

“The crying on you for what seemed like a good half hour.”

“It wasn’t quite that long,” Jack said and Daniel closed his eyes in abject humiliation.

“Great,” he said sourly.

“Come on, Daniel, don’t be so hard on yourself.” Jack looked around the room. “I did almost the exact same thing once. The biggest difference was that I broke a bottle of whisky against a wall beforehand. Sarah didn’t know what to do with me.”

Daniel shook his head. “You had a lot more happen to you, Jack,” he said.

Jack walked over and sat down next to him on the bed. “Maybe,” he replied. “But you can only react to your own experiences.”

“Jack --”

“Seriously Daniel,” Jack said. “You can’t base your thinking about how you ‘should’ react to something on how I reacted to something else. Our lives have been different, our coping mechanisms, our experiences.” Daniel knit his brows. And Jack had accused Daniel of going all pop psychology on him. “You’ve gone through things that would have sent me into screaming hysterics and just carried on. Not like nothing happened, but in ways I couldn’t imagine doing under the same circumstances.”

Daniel looked down at his hands and clasped them together tightly to keep them from fidgeting. “Jack, you’re being ridiculous. You’re much stronger than I am.”

“No, Daniel, I’m not.” Jack’s voice was quiet and calm. “We’re strong in different ways, maybe, but you’re an incredibly strong man. Don’t do this to yourself.”

Daniel closed his eyes and squeezed them shut tightly, willing his emotions back, but it was no good. Tears stung his eyes. “I can’t deal with it!” Daniel growled, the words propelled from him despite his best efforts to hold them back. “Janet’s not -- I know she’s not -- but it’s -- God damn it!” He took a deep breath. Jack didn’t say anything, just put his arm around Daniel’s shoulders. “I can’t talk straight!”

“It’s okay,” Jack said.

“No, it’s not!” Daniel pulled away and turned so that he was sitting cross legged at the end of the bed facing Jack. “It’s frustrating.” Jack just sat there looking at him, almost infuriatingly patient. He should be growling at him, barking at him, something. Not this calm concern. “Why are you acting like this?” he demanded.

Jack knit his brows, then scooted so that he was leaning against the headboard of the bed, facing Daniel. “Because we’re friends, and I’ve been in this spot.”

Daniel hearkened back to a moment not too many weeks before when Jack had said the most hurtful words possible in this very house. No foundation for their friendship. Yet here Jack sat, in the dim light from the hall, at three in the morning, in his underwear, waiting for Daniel to talk about things too wretched to talk about. He closed his eyes again and scrubbed at them with the heels of his hands. “When Rigar . . . did what he did . . .” Daniel started. “It was very impersonal. Almost clinical. There was nothing sexual about it. Just a measuring of how he could put pressure on me to make me say what he wanted to hear.” He looked up at Jack to see if he understood.

The other man nodded and said, “Okay.”

“So when Janet examines me . . . she’s clinical. She has to be, it’s the way things are done. And I wouldn’t want her to be . . . otherwise.” Daniel gulped, shuddering slightly. “But I can’t help . . . it feels like . . . I mean, I’m bent over something in maybe the most vulnerable position possible, and someone is . . . it feels the same.”

“That sucks.”

Daniel stared at him in shock. “That sucks?” he repeated. “That’s all? No words of wisdom?”

Jack shrugged. “Maybe you should try to concentrate on what doesn’t feel the same,” he suggested. “What feels different?”

Daniel considered the question. “Well, I’m not tied up,” he said, “which is a definite plus.” He sensed Jack’s surge of anger, and bit his lip. “She’s not trying to hurt me, even though she does sometimes.”

“Do you tell her?” Jack asked. Daniel shook his head. “You should. That’s the kind of thing she should know.”

“I think she knows,” Daniel said. “She apologizes at any rate.”

“Well, I’m sure that’s different,” Jack pointed out.

“True,” Daniel said. Then he sighed. “None of this makes much of a difference,” he said. “The problem only really comes up while she’s examining me.”

“So, the next time she’s examining you, you’ll just have a list of things to remember and focus on while she’s at it.”

Daniel snorted. “I guess.”

“So what else is bothering you?” Jack asked. “As long as we’re both here and you’re already stuffed up and feeling crappy.”

Daniel couldn’t help giving him a wry grin. “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m just so angry.”

“At who?”

“At Rigar, at stupid religious fanatics everywhere, at myself for not figuring out a way to avoid the problem . . .”

“At me?” Jack asked matter-of-factly.

Daniel looked at him, startled. “No, why would I be mad at you?”

“Well, I was in charge of the mission, I’m supposed to keep you safe. You would have every right to be mad at me.”

It took a moment, but then Daniel realized that Jack was carefully giving him permission to be angry at him. In case Daniel was and was feeling guilty about it. He shook his head. “I’m not, Jack. You did everything you could to distract them. Rigar focused on me for two reasons, I think. One, I’m the one who talked to Nyan and Mallin, so he knew my name in advance. Two, he thought I was the spokesman of the party, and --” He shrugged. “I am. I’m the voice of SG-1.”

Jack shook his head. “Anger isn’t always rational, Daniel. If you are angry, it’s --”

“I’m not angry at you, Jack,” Daniel said. “If you keep telling me I should be I might just oblige you, but it wouldn’t be about Rigar.” He contemplated his friend for a moment. “Do you blame yourself for what happened?”

“Of course I blame myself,” Jack said. “It’s my job to see to it that things like that don’t happen.” Daniel blinked, because Jack seemed on the verge of tears. “Damn it, I was within fifty feet of you, and there was nothing I could do. I didn’t even know it happened!”

“I don’t think you were supposed to,” Daniel said.

“That doesn’t help,” Jack replied. “And we’re not supposed to be talking about my feelings, we’re supposed to be talking about yours.”

“Right,” Daniel said. “Because I’m the only one who’s suffering?”

“I didn’t say that,” Jack growled.

“Then why?”

“Because you’re the one who doesn’t deserve to suffer.” The words seemed to burst out of him, and he looked regretful the moment he said them.

“Jack, you don’t deserve to suffer,” Daniel said, astonished. “What happened wasn’t your fault. You did all the things you should have, and . . . we know what we do is dangerous.”

“I’m in charge, Daniel,” Jack said. “I’m responsible for your welfare and for Carter’s welfare and for Teal’c’s welfare. That’s part of what being the commanding officer is about. You can’t let me off that easily. I should have . . . I don’t know, ordered our retreat a little faster. Found a way to get their attention focused on me.”

“That wouldn’t have been better,” Daniel replied. “It was a bad situation that we weren’t prepared for, that we couldn’t have prepared for.”

“Instead I just sat there and let them take you to --” Jack broke off, looking off into a corner.

“You couldn’t have stopped them, all you could have gotten them to do was hurt you more,” Daniel replied. “And then you wouldn’t have been in any condition to lead our escape.”

Jack shook his head. “This isn’t about me, Daniel, this is about you.”

“I don’t know why it should be,” Daniel said. “You’re having a hard time with this, too, clearly.”

“You’re the one who woke up in the middle of the night because you were upset.”

Daniel blinked at him. “I woke up because I was hungry, Jack.”

“You’re hungry.” Jack stared at him.

“I skipped dinner.”

“Oh.” Jack looked slightly stunned. “Hungry I can fix. Come on down to the kitchen.”

* * *

Over fat ham sandwiches Jack tried to figure out how the conversation upstairs had gone so far off track. How had his comforting Daniel turned into Daniel trying to comfort him? He tried to remember the thread that had led off in the wrong direction. Finally, he nodded. “So, you say you’re angry. Is it causing you problems?”

Daniel blinked at him, then started laboriously chewing and Jack cursed his timing. Of course, ask a serious question just as someone takes a bite of food, that’s helpful. “That depends on what you mean by problems,” Daniel said eventually, after a swallow of the inevitable coffee.

“Well, tell me what is happening,” Jack said, not sure how to explain what he meant.

Daniel shrugged. “It’s just that there’s no outlet,” he said. “Rigar’s dead, and even if he wasn’t I couldn’t have done anything about him. That war is still going on, undoubtedly, possibly fueled to greater heights by our presence there, however brief.” The other man pursed his lips and grimaced. “There are religious fanatics right here on Earth killing each other and there’s nothing I can do about that either. But every so often this anger washes over me.”

“Does it come randomly or what?” Jack asked him.

He looked thoughtful at that. “Not randomly,” he admitted slowly. “When the burns hurt or itch, like the one on my belly is doing right now, when I have to go to see Dr. Fraiser, when I think about what happened.”

“Well the burns and the visiting Dr. Fraiser will solve themselves in time,” Jack said. “And thinking about it will taper off, again in time.”

“That’s great,” Daniel said. “But that doesn’t help me now. I’m stuck with this huge, helpless rage that wants to lash out and can’t. Add to that a whole load of misery that this has been done to me, and that there’s nothing that can undo it. It’s in reports, it’s been entered in my medical history, it’s part of my life now, and I don’t want it.” He took a savage bite of his sandwich and chewed. Jack didn’t know what to say. He knew the feeling. Daniel grimaced. “Just another addition to the long list of wretched happenings in the life of Daniel Jackson.”

Jack had no response to that. The silence dragged on until it grew awkward. Finally, Jack cleared his throat. “So, are we going back to work tomorrow? Because I thought we might try going over to the Cave of Winds. I took Charlie there a couple of times when he was little.” For a moment, while he was talking, Daniel had looked like he was going to refuse, but then he looked thoughtful.

“Cave of the Winds, huh?” he asked. “Does this involve climbing?”

“It can, but I figured we go on the garden variety tour and just look at the sights.”

“Sounds okay,” Daniel said. “You just want to play hooky another day.”

He nodded, and said, “You caught me. Another day of relaxation cannot go amiss.” He didn’t tell Daniel that Fraiser had recommended at least one more day, if not two, of rest for Daniel. It wasn’t as if they didn’t both have the sick days coming to them, or vacation days for that matter. “Maybe we could persuade Carter and Teal’c to come with us,” he said suddenly. “Teal’c hasn’t seen much outside the base that wasn’t work related.”

Daniel grinned. “He’s going to think it odd that we pay money to go look at a cave, Jack. Just wait.”


	19. Chapter 19

“You pay money for someone to take you into a cave and guide you around it?” Teal’c said in tones of astonishment as they got in line to wait for their turn. Jack sighed. Daniel had warned him.

Sam laughed. “It’s more than that, Teal’c. It’s educational. The guide is knowledgeable about geology and rock formation.”

“And it’s historical. This is one of the earliest caves in the United States that people took guided tours of,” Daniel said.

“So because people paid money a hundred years ago for someone to show them around this cave, we should pay money now for the same service?” Teal’c asked, obviously puzzled.

“Just enjoy the show, Teal’c,” Jack said.

The Jaffa merely raised an eyebrow and turned towards the front of the line, but he did seem to be interested during the tour. When they were done, Jack drove them over to Garden of the Gods Park where they had lunch and then went on a guided walk around the park. After that Daniel seemed to be getting a bit tired.

“Why don’t we head home now,” Jack suggested.

“No, we should go see a movie,” Daniel said, sounding rather like child who didn’t want his day of treats to end. “Teal’c have you seen a movie in a real live movie theater yet?”

“I have not, DanielJackson, but you seem weary. I think we should do as Colonel O’Neill says and return to the house.”

Daniel yawned and Jack took the opportunity to say, “We can always go see a movie tomorrow.”

“I have to go to work tomorrow,” Daniel said, looking stubborn.

“Nothing says we can’t leave early,” Jack replied, undeterred. He hadn’t really thought he could lure Daniel away for another day, regardless of what Fraiser wanted. “That’s it. We’ll all take an early day tomorrow, and then go out to a movie.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Sam said. “I hate to say it, Daniel, but I’m pooped. I was up late last night working on some algorithms for the gate program.”

“I told you that you needed to get a life,” Daniel put in, glowering at her. “Fine, movie tomorrow night. I guess I am a little tired.”

“And grouchy,” Sam said.

Daniel rolled his eyes at her. “You’d be grouchy too if all your friends were conspiring to make you go to bed early. You’d think I had a trio of mothers, two of whom are shaped a little oddly for the role.”

Jack laughed. “You’d do the same to us if the positions were reversed, Daniel, and you know it.”

“That’s different,” the archeologist groused.

“How?”

“It just is.”

They took their stubborn and childish archeologist back to Jack’s house and had dinner. Soon afterwards, Daniel fell asleep on the sofa and was steered, protesting, to bed by Teal’c.

“Colonel, is he really ready to go back to work tomorrow?” Carter asked

Jack shrugged. “I doubt it, frankly,” he said. “But the only way to prove that to Daniel is by letting him try.”

Carter smiled. “He seems pretty okay,” she said. “Just easily tired.”

Teal’c came down looking mildly amused. “DanielJackson asked me if I intended to sing him a lullaby.” Jack raised his eyebrows and struggled to maintain a serious expression. Sam’s eyes were dancing. “So I sang him something I used to sing to Ryac when he was a baby.”

“You did?” Sam exclaimed incredulously.

“He seemed surprised as well,” Teal’c said. “However, it was quite effective.”

Jack blinked. “You sang Daniel to sleep?” he asked.

“I did.” Teal’c seemed very pleased with himself. Jack couldn’t fault him. “What is our plan for tomorrow? DanielJackson will not be ready to return to work.”

“Ah, but he thinks he will be,” Jack said. “And nothing you or I can say will disabuse him of that notion. He needs proof. So, we take him in to work tomorrow. You, Carter and I have a date with a planet to take some photographs. We do that, we check on Daniel, we cart him off because he’s too tired to work and we end up with another day off.”

“Of which planet do we intend to take photographs, O’Neill?” Teal’c asked.

He described the layout of the little island on M3T-33H as well as their reasons for going there, and Teal’c nodded slowly. “That sounds like an excellent plan, O’Neill.”

Jack grinned. “So, we’re set. Anyone up for poker?”

“I think we’d better be going,” Sam said. “I really didn’t get much sleep last night, and if we’re going on a trip tomorrow, I’d better get some tonight.”

Teal’c nodded. “Good night, O’Neill.”

* * *

Jack woke Daniel in plenty of time, got him fed and medicated and out the door carrying the ever present cup of coffee. He drove his silently yawning archeologist to the mountain and took him to his office.

Becoming immediately absorbed in his work, Daniel almost didn’t notice when Jack left. He got a muttered, “See you later, Jack,” as he walked down the hall.

Jack went down to the commissary where he found Teal’c eating breakfast. “Good morning, O’Neill,” he said. “Our mission is scheduled for 0900 hours.”

“Good,” Jack said. “We can get it over with before Daniel crashes.”

“Indeed. I have already prepared our packs, but Major Carter has not yet come in.”

Jack looked at his watch. “It isn’t like her to be late.” He turned around, ready to go find a phone and give her a call, but she walked into the commissary just then.

Seeing them, she headed over. “Sorry, guys, my alarm died and then I got stuck behind an idiot in traffic. When are we scheduled?”

“0900 hours,” Teal’c said.

She sat down. “How’s Daniel?”

“He’s fine. He’s in his office, working away.”

Jack noticed that at least three other people had been listening in and wondered how long it would be before everyone on base knew that Daniel Jackson was back at his desk.

* * *

Daniel was deeply engrossed in a translation from an extremely obscure dialect of Goa’uld when he suddenly became aware of someone standing beside him. He tensed and looked up to find Sgt. Saunders standing at his elbow. “Emily!” he said. “Hello. Can I help you?” Emily Saunders was in charge of the morning shift at the commissary.

“I just thought you might like carafe of coffee, Dr. Jackson,” she said, holding up a tray with the carafe, a cup and the attendant nonsense like cream and sugar that Daniel never used.

“Thank you,” he said, taking the carafe and cup and putting them on his desk in clear patches. “That was very thoughtful.”

She smiled at him, looking worried. “Are you all right?” she asked tentatively. “Is there anything else I can get you?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “I had breakfast at Jack’s house this morning.”

She nodded as if this news were already known to her, but for all he knew she’d seen Jack this morning. “But is there anything else?”

“No, Emily,” he said, wondering why she seemed so very worried. He’d been hurt before . . . this seemed a little over the top. “I appreciate your bringing me the coffee, though.”

She smiled again and left, and Daniel poured himself a cup of coffee. It was strong and, unless he missed his guess, from the general’s private stock of gourmet beans. He raised an eyebrow and kept drinking. If Hammond hadn’t authorized it, he owed it to Emily to eliminate the evidence.

It took several minutes for him to find the thread of the text again. He was finding the position unexpectedly uncomfortably due to the big burn on his back. It was amazing how many muscles that seemed to be attached directly to. However, he was a past master at putting discomfort out of his mind in order to work . . .

Four more people dropped by for no apparent reason before ten a.m., and the most frequently asked question was, “Are you okay?” What was up with people? It was destroying his concentration. He’d never gotten this much attention since just after Sha’re died and everyone kept stopping to express their condolences and then stare uncertainly because they didn’t know what else to say.

He’d politely run off a pair of young lieutenants he’d been tutoring in linguistics and gotten back to work when the sixth interruption of the day occurred.

“Dr. Jackson!” This enthusiastic greeting was accompanied by a hearty slap on the back between his shoulders. He let out a cry of startlement and pain combined. “What?” exclaimed the man, and Daniel identified him as Lou Feretti. “I’m sorry, Dr. Jackson, did I hurt you?”

Daniel turned on his stool and smiled tightly at Feretti. “It’s okay. You couldn’t know. There’s a burn between my shoulder blades that’s still not quite healed.”

“Damn, how many burns do you have?” he asked.

Daniel added them up in his head. “Eight, I think, but the only bad one is the one you inadvertently found.”

“I’m sorry.” He stood awkwardly for a moment, not saying anything and Daniel wondered why he was here.

“Can I help you?” he asked. “Did you need something?”

Feretti shrugged. “I just wanted to see if you were okay, for myself, you know.”

Daniel’s brows knit. “I’m fine,” he said. “If someone’s been spreading stories that I’m sick or something, they’re mistaken. I just got a little more badly injured than usual.”

“Of course, Dr. Jackson, I understand,” the other man said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your work. I just wanted to see how you were.”

“I’m fine,” Daniel said again. Feretti seemed almost nervous now. “Um . . . How are you? I heard your last mission got a little messy at the end.”

Feretti nodded. “A little, a few flesh wounds, nothing serious. Nothing like what happened . . .”

Daniel felt his skin chill. “Like what happened . . .” he repeated slowly. Lou was looking nervous. “What are you talking about?”

Lou cleared his throat. “On P2X-416.”

“What do you mean, what happened on P2X-416?” he asked. “What do you know?”

Feretti turned scarlet. “Nothing real specific.”

A horrible suspicion entered Daniel’s mind at that moment and he slipped off his stool and took Feretti by the arm, leading him over to the couch where he sat down with him. “Okay, Lou. Out with it. Exactly what do you know?”

“I’m sorry, Dr. Jackson, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I’m not upset.” Feretti raised an eyebrow and Daniel sighed. “Okay, so I am upset, but I really need to know what you’re talking about.”

“Well, when General Hammond sent those three teams back to P2X-416, he warned them what they could expect if they were captured.” Daniel blinked, not wanting to believe what he was hearing. “What kinds of torture were practiced on that planet.” He felt all the blood run out of his face.

He tried several times to speak, but failed. Finally, he managed to get his voice working again. “Feretti, you weren’t on any of those teams,” he said.

“No,” Feretti said uncomfortably. “I heard about it in the locker room.” Daniel closed his eyes, horrified. “Your name was never mentioned,” Feretti hastened to add, “but we know that Teal’c was out on his own for most of that mission, and that Sam and Jack were released from the infirmary almost immediately.”

Daniel took a deep breath. “Lou, I --” he started but broke off, shaking his head. “Thank you for telling me.”

“I’m sorry, Dr. Jackson. I assumed you would already know.”

“That it was common knowledge, no, that I didn’t know.” And Jack had been with him this whole time, back at his house, and no one would mention it to Sam or Teal’c.

“I’m sorry, Daniel,” Feretti said.

“It’s not your fault, Lou,” Daniel said. “And I really am fine. I could be better, but the world isn’t crashing down around my ears.”

“Glad to hear it,” Feretti replied, giving him a friendly grin. “Well, unless you would rather I stuck around to repel intruders . . .”

“No, I’ll be fine.”

Feretti nodded and got up. Daniel saw him to the door and, this time, closed it firmly after him. He usually left his door wide, but he needed a few minutes to absorb this. Of course Hammond had to warn the teams that were going what might happen if they were captured. He ran the rosters of SG-4, 6 and 9 through his mind and realized something else pretty convincing in the evidence department. There were no women on any of those teams, so if Hammond warned them that rape was a possibility, they had to figure that a man . . .

He turned his thoughts resolutely back to the task at hand, but within a half hour, there was a knock at the door. Daniel got up and found another commissary worker there, this time with some donuts and a fresh pot of coffee. He took them, thanked her and shut the door again. Putting them on his desk, he walked over to the sofa and sank down on it, hissing when his shirt rubbed against the burn a little too much.

Life sucked.


	20. Chapter 20

Jack stood atop the hill that was on the north side of the mountain, according to his compass. It was always nice to go to a planet that had a magnetic pole. It made things considerably easier when it came time to describe where things were.

He’d brought a more powerful scope with him than the last team had taken, and he was looking now to see if there was any land in sight. Empty acres of rolling blue ocean as far as he could see. No, boats, no land, no nothing.

Tucking the scope away in its case, he walked back down the hill. “Any signs of people passing through, Teal’c?” he asked.

The Jaffa looked and shook his head. “No, O’Neill, though that is not conclusive. I believe this region is subject to frequent rainfall and storms, which quickly eliminates ground traces.”

“No radio signals, no artificial satellites that I can pick up,” Sam said. “Just this little patch of land in a big blue ocean.”

“Sounds like the perfect place for a summer cottage,” Jack said.

“If you like rain,” Sam said. “From these readouts, I’d say we’re going to have another storm before long. If we want to get those pictures, we’d better get started.”

Jack nodded and they followed Camden’s directions to the cache site. “You know I have no idea what Daniel will want to see,” Sam said as she pulled out her camera.

“I do.” Jack scanned the trees around them for signs of predators.

“There’s no way I’ll get the right pictures, no matter how hard I try.”

“I’m counting on it, Carter. The idea is to give Daniel enough to work on but still give him something to gripe about.”

Sam bit her lip, then nodded. “Right.” She turned to the cache and started snapping pictures.

“O’Neill,” Teal’c said. “I have observed you looking for signs of wildlife. I do not believe there is anything larger than a timtuc on this island.”

Jack looked over at him and said, “That would be useful information if I knew what a tictac was.”

“Timtuc,” Teal’c corrected imperturbably. “It is not much bigger that a squirrel.”

“Then why didn’t you just say squirrel?” Jack demanded.

Teal’c tilted his head slightly. “Because a timtuc is larger than a squirrel, O’Neill.”

Jack grimaced at his phlegmatic colleague. “So is the timtuc a predator or not?”

“It is not, and I do not believe that the largest animal on this island is a predator. I think that is the place of a somewhat smaller creature. I have seen signs of recent kills, but they appear to have been swarmed under rather than seized but a larger animal.”

“Charming. So we’ve got land piranhas?”

“I very much doubt that they would attack a human, O’Neill,” Teal’c said. “From the signs I saw, they appear to be very tiny creatures indeed.”

“Still, that’s a little nerve-wracking. Nobody goes anywhere else alone. They might not attack a standing human, but if somebody tripped and fell, especially if they got hurt . . .”

Teal’c’s eyes widened slightly. “Point taken, O’Neill.”

“Did you hear that, Carter?” he said, turning.

“Land piranhas, don’t go alone, got it, sir.”

Jack grinned but he returned to his scanning. Land piranhas weren’t his idea of a safe trip, but on the other hand, Daniel needed a trip where they wouldn’t be running into human or humanoid problems. A few critters they could handle.

“Well, I think that’s enough pictures to keep Daniel going,” Sam said. She squinted up at the sky. “Those storm clouds are rolling in pretty quickly. I think we’d better move out, sir.”

“Let’s go, then,” he said.

They returned to the stargate, which was in a little clearing about a quarter mile from the cache, and Sam dialed up the coordinates for Earth. The wormhole whooshed into existence and they returned through it to the SGC, greeted as always by machine guns pointed in their direction. Sometimes Jack wished that wasn’t necessary. It wasn’t much of a welcome home.

“Stand down,” called the general over the intercom from the control room. The SFs lowered their weapons and now they were getting friendly nods. Jack figured that had to be an odd job, never knowing if the people who were coming through the gate would still be the people who left, and that you might have to shoot a friend to save the planet.

Hammond came into the gate room and said, “Hit the showers and then meet me in the briefing room. I want to know what you found.”

Jack nodded. “Yes sir.”

When they were done telling him what they’d found, Hammond nodded. “So a planet with no signs of nearby inhabitants, very small carnivores that could be problematic to a downed human, but largely free of dangerous animal life.”

“And a huge cache of artifacts ready for Daniel to drool over,” Jack said.

“When Dr. Jackson is declared fit for active duty, we’ll see about putting it on the mission roster.”

“Thank you, general.”

“In the meantime, colonel, I’ve got a couple of things I’d like you to look into while you’re on base,” the general said, nodding dismissal to the others.

It was nearly two hours before Jack finished the ‘couple of things’ General Hammond wanted him to look into, and he was ready to skin the last guy alive. Stupid little disciplinary matters that were too minor for the general to handle in person, but just right for his second in command. It was frustrating but necessary.

Finally done, he headed towards Daniel’s office to see how he was holding up. When he got there, he found a piece of white copy paper with the words “Do Not Disturb” scrawled in large black letters taped to the door. It wasn’t Daniel’s writing, so he was mildly alarmed. He opened the door slowly and peered in. The table Daniel used for a translation desk was, as always, littered with papers, but there was also a plate of donuts and two carafes of coffee. At least Jack assumed it was coffee. The stool was empty,

Peering further still, Jack saw a recumbent form on the couch. Daniel was curled up slightly so he’d fit, lying on his side with his back to the room, one arm over his eyes like a cat trying to block out the light. And General Hammond was draping a blanket over the sleeping archeologist.

The general looked up as Jack slipped in. “I found him like this,” he said quietly. “Evidently so did someone else. There’s a sign on the door.” He pointed to the other door into the room.

“This one, too,” Jack said, shutting the door behind him.

Hammond smiled. “He’s made a real impact with a lot of people.”

Jack shrugged. “He’s Daniel. I think that goes without saying.”

Beckoning, the general led Jack out into the other hallway and shut the door softly. “Jack, I think that you and the rest of SG-1 need a longer break. None of you has taken any sick leave or vacation in months, and I’m ordering all four of you to take a week off.”

“A week, sir?” Jack exclaimed. “That’s --”

“It’s an order, colonel. I don’t even want you coming around the base, or I might discover I have other things I need attended to, and I’d rather not do that.”

Jack stood straighter at the word ‘order.’ “Yes sir.”

“Glad to hear it. Now take Dr. Jackson home and put him to bed,” Hammond said. “I can send Teal’c up if you think you need help.”

“I’ll manage, general,” Jack replied and, nodding, went back into Daniel’s office. Very gently, he leaned down and shook the archeologist’s shoulder. “Daniel?”

Daniel sat up so fast that Jack had to jerk upright to avoid having their heads collide. “What?!”

“Daniel, it’s me, Jack.”

The archeologist looked up at him for a moment with wide unseeing eyes, then blinked and said, “Jack? What are you doing here?”

Jack glanced around the office. “I was coming to check on you, Daniel. You okay?”

Daniel blinked and looked around himself. “Oh . . . sorry . . . I was having an intense, incredibly real dream that I was back on Abydos.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t figure out why you’d be in the house I shared with Sha’re.” He swung his feet off the couch and buried his face in his hands. “Damn!” he added in heartfelt tones. “I love those dreams while they’re happening, but I hate waking up from them.”

“I know how that goes,” Jack said, sitting down. “I have them about Charlie from time to time.”

Daniel grimaced. “Ouch.”

“Yeah.”

They were silent for a moment. “Jack, did you know that the whole damned base knows I was . . . attacked?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean Feretti heard about it in the locker room,” Daniel said, turning his head and looking at him sideways. “As in the whole base. I had at least seven visitors today, and I have no idea who put the blanket on me.”

“General Hammond,” Jack said.

“Ah. Well, everyone and their second cousin came by to see if I was ‘all right.’ Like I was going to tell them, ‘No, actually I’m not. As soon as you leave I can get back to that crying jag I’ve been on.’”

“Daniel, a lot of people here really care about you.”

The other man shrugged. “I just feel as if I’m on display. ‘Rape victim, in denial,’ with notes underneath detailing where and when.”

“I guarantee you, it’s not like that,” Jack said, hoping he was right. “You have a lot of friends here, people you might never have realized think of you that way.”

Daniel sighed. “So, you’re checking up on me. Have you decided I need to go home?”

“Actually, General Hammond has ordered all of us, Teal’c and Sam included, to take a week off. No protests allowed.”

“What? I have --” Daniel gestured towards his desk. “There are -- I can’t take a week off!”

“It’s an order, Daniel,” Jack said. “You may disregard my orders from time to time, but I wouldn’t recommend ignoring Hammond’s.”

“I never disregard your orders, Jack,” Daniel protested. “I may re-interpret them from time to time, but I never totally disregard them.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Well, that’s as may be. It’s time to get you home.”

“We’re going to a movie tonight,” Daniel said.

“You’re going to take a nap.”

“I just took a nap.”

“But you obviously need one or you wouldn’t have still been asleep.”

“I’m not sleepy.”

“Daniel!”

“Jack?”

“They’re doing it again!”

Jack and Daniel turned to stare at the doorway where Janet and Sam stood together. It was Janet who had spoken.

“What?” they asked in unison.

“Communicating without using words,” Sam said.

Jack looked in puzzlement at Daniel who was looking at him, just as confused. They shrugged and turned back to the women in the doorway.

“See, they do that all the time!” Sam grumbled.

“But I understood them, that time,” Janet said. Sam just stared at her for a moment, then shook her head. “All right, gentlemen, I’ve been informed that I am putting you on medical leave for the next week, so I’d like to at least see you before I fill out the forms.” She looked from one to the other of them. “Okay, go have fun.” With that, she turned and walked out of the room.

“Me too!” Sam cried, glaring after her. “I’m not allowed to touch anything with Naquadah in it, not allowed to even think about the problem with the dialing program.”

“How’s he going to know if you do, Sam?” Daniel asked with perfect innocence.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But have this sneaking suspicion he will.”

“What movie did you guys want to see?” Daniel asked.

“Well, we’re taking Teal’c, so it had probably better be something with a bit of action to it,” Sam said.

“How about _The Mummy?_ ”

“That’s Egyptian stuff, Daniel!” Jack protested. “Please, no!”

Teal’c came around the door frame. “I would like to see this movie, O’Neill,” he said. “It sounds as if it could be of interest.”

Jack hung his head down in surrender. “If you’re both for it, I don’t know what I can do but give way.”

“Sounds like fun, sir, though we may have to gag Daniel.”

Daniel glared at her. “I promise to keep my commentary until after the movie is over.”

“When the rest of us are free to flee to other rooms,” Jack added and Daniel transferred his glare to him. He stood up. “We’d better skedaddle before Hammond finds someone else that only I can set straight.”

Daniel got up too, snagged a couple of things off his desk, and they all headed out.

* * *

Daniel held himself in until they got out to Daniel’s car. Then he and Teal’c went at it, discussing and dissecting every Egyptian detail of the movie. They climbed into the back seat together while Jack and Sam climbed in up front. Jack had no idea that Teal’c had become such an expert on Egyptian monuments, but evidently he had studied the ancestral history of the Goa’uld traditions he had been brought up in.

Jack glanced over at Sam, who grinned, clearly enjoying the byplay. Most of it went right over Jack’s head, so he just put the car into gear and pulled out of the parking space.

Daniel’s nap combined with his enthusiastic discussion of the movie seemed to lend him energy. They played a game of Monopoly, with Teal’c as the stern and rigidly correct banker, then, as they all started to flag, Jack said, “Okay, I want everyone here early tomorrow morning. I’ll have some suggestions ready then for where we can go and what we can do.”

Sam and Teal’c left then, Teal’c was staying at her house so that he would be away from the temptation to work. Jack turned to Daniel who was yawning hugely. “Bed time for Bonzo,” he said.

“What?” Daniel asked, sounding puzzled.

“Go to bed, Daniel,” Jack replied. “Upstairs, to the left, it’s a long skinny thing, kind of soft. You’ll recognize it when you see it.”

Daniel gave him a sour look. “Thanks, Jack, very helpful. Good night.”

Making sure everything was locked up tight, Jack followed him up. “Jack?” came a voice from Daniel’s bedroom.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think disappearing for a week is going to make the tongues stop wagging, or make them wag all the more?”

Jack sighed. “That’s a tough question to answer,” he said. “Probably it won’t stop them. I don’t know that it will make them wag more.”

Daniel groaned. “Great. I went in for a half day, fell asleep in my office where I was seen, asleep, by at least two people, then got ordered to take a week off. People are going to think I’ve flipped my lid.”

“No, they won’t, Daniel. You’re not the only one who’s been ordered to take time off.”

“No, the rest of my team is going with me.”

“Daniel, none of us besides Sam has taken personal time since . . . I’m not sure since when, and Sam only takes time to see her brother or her father. People will think we’re all tired and being granted a little well earned leave.”

“I guess,” Daniel said dubiously.

“Now go to sleep.”


	21. Chapter 21

Ten a.m. wasn’t precisely ‘early,’ but considering that they were all on vacation, Jack decided not to push it. Daniel had only been up for about twenty minutes when Sam and Teal’c showed up, and in fact he hadn’t even showered yet, still sitting in the living room doing something he called ‘waking up.’ Jack thought it looked startlingly like reading a book and drinking coffee.

When Sam and Teal’c came in, they all sat there for a half hour, shooting the breeze. Not that Teal’c said much, but then he rarely did. They discussed Sgt. French’s prospective twins, who had been identified as girls, the prospect of actually starting a base softball league, which kept getting proposed and then going nowhere since half the people involved were off planet at any given time, and Sgt. Siler’s reputed fling with a member of the commissary staff. Standard chitchat, and not something they often discussed among themselves. It was interesting, actually, to see who knew which facts and who had which insights.

For instance, as the others were trying to decide which woman in the commissary was the most likely recipient of Siler’s attentions, Daniel spoke up. “Delia.”

Jack looked at him, trying to place the name. Sam beat him to the question. “Who?”

“The base pastry cook,” Teal’c informed them.

Daniel nodded. “Sgt. Delia Cramer. They’ve been dating for three weeks, now.”

“You know her name?” Sam asked incredulously, again saving Jack the embarrassment of asking the same question.

“Don’t you?” Daniel asked, seeming startled.

“I -- well -- it’s --” Sam faltered to a stop.

“So, you two have been chatting up the commissary ladies, have you?” Jack asked. “Trying to get the best food?”

Teal’c looked at him imperturbably. “They arrive much before the rest of the staff of the base, O’Neill, and I am always there. Just as the janitors are there late at night.”

“Oh,” Jack said. Daniel chuckled and Jack turned to him. “And your excuse?”

“Do I need one?” the archeologist asked. “People talk to me, Jack. What am I supposed to do, ignore them?”

“When they’re Mormon missionaries, yes. When they make pie, no. That seems a fairly simple rule, don’t you think?”

“What if they’re Mormon missionaries who make pie?” Daniel asked with simple, irrefutable logic. Sam hid a grin and Teal’c turned to him with the inevitable raised eyebrow query.

“There’s no need to make things complicated,” Jack growled.

Daniel rose. “I think I’d better go find myself a shower so we can start thinking about where we’re going to go.”

As he disappeared from view, Jack called, “Come down without your shirt so I can put your medication on your back.”

He heard a muttered phrase that he didn’t understand and then feet on the stairs.

“Anyone want something to drink?” Jack asked, getting up to fetch himself a soda.

“Got any bottled water?” Sam asked. He nodded and turned to Teal’c.

“No, thank you, O’Neill,” Teal’c said.

Jack grabbed a bottle of the lightly fizzy flavored water that Daniel liked and a Coke for himself and went back out into the living room. “Daniel hasn’t eaten yet, so we’ll have to wait for him before we go anywhere.”

Sam stretched, leaning back in her chair. “I’m in no hurry, sir,” she said. “It’s kind of nice being here, talking about stuff, with nothing whatsoever to do.” She grinned up at him. “I figure I’d better enjoy the feeling while it lasts.”

“I find it quite disturbing,” Teal’c said. “I have never been without tasks and found it comfortable.”

Jack blinked at him. “You need to get out more.”

“Or take the act of having a good time and make it a task,” Sam suggested. “Then you won’t be able to avoid giving it your all.”

Jack shook his head at the twisted logic of that statement and resolved to make sure all his team got out more. Daniel had actually mentioned the plots of recent movies on occasion, so he had a feeling that the archeologist didn’t restrict his study to ancient cultures, but Sam often looked blank when the titles of current films were mentioned. And Teal’c was always so ramrod straight . . . even after three years, Jack didn’t always know how to interpret the Jaffa’s moods, but none of them ever seemed relaxed, per se.

Abruptly, the colonel remembered something he wanted to talk to the others about before Daniel came back. “Were either of you aware of the fact that Daniel’s . . . experience . . . has become common knowledge on the base?” Sam’s eyes widened with dismay and Teal’c’s expression grew particularly enigmatic. “I knew it would get out, in a community that small it’s impossible to keep that kind of secret, but I thought it would take longer than a couple of days.”

“I knew Feretti knew, of course,” Sam said. “But he didn’t say where he had learned it from.”

“The locker room, or so he told Daniel,” Jack replied. Sam bit her lip, and the Jaffa looked infuriated. Jack had to admit that his own anger was pumping at the thought of Daniel’s rape being discussed openly in the locker room. He wanted to have a chat with Feretti about permitting such a thing to happen. And, since it was unlikely in the extreme that anyone beyond the small circle of SG-1, Hammond and the medical personnel who treated Daniel, had real details, there were undoubtedly all sorts of versions of the event making the rounds.

“Damn, that’s hardly fair to Daniel,” Carter said. “He doesn’t deserve to be talked about like that.”

“To be fair --” which was the last thing Jack wanted to be “-- we don’t actually know any details about how it was discussed.”

“Nevertheless, it was discussed, openly, by men who had information that they should not have shared,” Teal’c said. “It was inappropriate. We should take steps to see that such a thing does not happen again.”

“That’s practically impossible, Teal’c. All it takes is one word wrong, and then it’s either out with the truth or people will start making things up.”

“All of these men work in a top secret facility. If their discretion cannot be trusted --”

“It’s different, Teal’c,” Jack said.

“How so, O’Neill?”

“It just is, I don’t know how to explain it.” He rolled his eyes grimly. “And the one person who’s qualified to explain it is Daniel.”

“I would not wish to ask him in this case, O’Neill.”

“My point exactly,” Jack said, nodding.

“Ask me what?” Daniel asked, coming down the steps into the living room.

* * *

Daniel gazed down at the blank faces that were all looking up at him. Sam stuttered to a start before the others did, her uneven voice and nervous look a sign that something was wrong. “Um . . . well . . . we . . .”

“It is nothing, DanielJackson,” Teal’c said firmly. Jack nodded, eyes a little wild.

“No, it’s something,” Daniel said, looking suspiciously from face to face, settling on Sam’s. Teal’c could hide behind his inscrutable expressions, and Jack was great at calm nonchalance if you didn’t actually look into his eyes, but Sam couldn’t lie to save her life. “You know, you can talk to me about what happened. I won’t break.”

“We know,” Sam said, and Daniel heard the sympathy in her voice again. That invidious, debilitating sympathy that he remembered from too many caseworkers and well-meaning social workers. Poor Danny Jackson, orphaned and unwanted. Poor Danny Jackson, never quite fits in anywhere. It never occurred to any of them that by telling the other children to be kind to him they set him up for failure. That by telling the foster parents he was sent to they set the stage for the children to find out, too. Daniel shook his head, trying to push away the thoughts, but they wouldn’t be banished. Once again, everyone knew what had happened to him, and he was going to have to rise above another tidal wave of sympathy that he didn’t want. And taunts, no doubt, from the idiots who seemed to be everywhere.

He smiled, putting as much confidence and strength into the expression as he could. “Well, where are we going today?”

* * *

Jack was worried. He saw Daniel draw in on himself at Carter’s simple statement, could tell that Carter saw it, too. He didn’t know how to address it, was, in fact, afraid to try for fear of making things worse. The false smile he plastered on was not deceiving any of them, probably not even Daniel, but Jack figured that they’d better play it his way for now.

“Well, I had thought we could go to Denver. It’s chock full of things to look at and things to do.”

“They have a very good art museum,” Daniel said with a shade too much cheer. Jack hoped he’d get the balance right soon, because the overacting was grating on his nerves.

“And botanical gardens,” Jack said, “and cowboy museums, and a stellar amusement park that’s also a botanical garden. Thing is, I thought that if we were going to go to Denver, we might want to actually stay a couple of days, because it’s a good seventy-mile drive.”

“Sounds great,” Daniel said.

Sam nodded, looking anxiously at Daniel. “I like that idea. Teal’c?”

“I have not yet seen Denver. I, too, am in favor of this proposal.”

“Then it’s unanimous. You two, go get your stuff and I’ll start calling hotels.” They left and Daniel started out of the room. “Hey, Dannyboy?” He stopped and raised an eyebrow. “Do you mind sharing a room with me? It’ll keep the costs down.”

Daniel shrugged. “No problem,” he said. “I’d rather keep Janet off your back, too,” he added as if he knew that was the real reason.

He found them three rooms at a Holiday Inn then went upstairs to pack for himself. Daniel was already coming downstairs and when Jack reached for his bag, he glared at him. “I can manage, Jack. I’m not that badly hurt.”

Jack raised his hands in surrender and kept on going. He wasn’t sure if it was what Carter had said that sent Daniel into retreat or if it had been her tone, but he’d lay money on it being that sugary sympathy. Packing up quickly, he went back downstairs to find Daniel scribbling madly in one of his ever-present journals.

Deciding not to interrupt him immediately, Jack went in and made him some breakfast. The smell drew Daniel’s attention like mere words, in English at any rate, would not. Within a few moments of Jack’s setting the sausage sizzling, Daniel came in. “That smells good.”

“You should try it, this cooking thing. It does amazing things for your sense of well being,” Jack said.

“I really don’t like to cook all that much,” Daniel said. “Out in the field is one thing, but not at home.” That seemed odd, but Jack just shrugged. “Not that _we_ cook out in the field,” he added thoughtfully. “We just heat up things that look like all sorts of different kinds of food, yet always taste like chicken.”

Jack rolled his eyes at Daniel’s inevitable complaint about their MREs. “Makes no difference to me, just thought you might be a little healthier if you ate breakfast _before_ you got to work every now and then.”

“It’s not like I don’t eat, Jack,” Daniel protested.

“When you’re immersed in a project, it requires someone with a crowbar to get you to eat,” Jack said. “Or someone with the presence of mind to bring you finger food and leave it at your elbow. I don’t know how many meals you’ve eaten without even noticing, just because they were sitting on the corner of your desk.”

Daniel snorted. “So is that were all those empty plates come from?” he said dryly. “I never knew.”

“Oh yeah, joke, laugh it up. I’m the one who gets to face Fraiser at the end of this if you haven’t eaten enough.”

“I’m eating everything you give me, Jack,” Daniel said. “Don’t be so paranoid. Janet isn’t going to kill you if I don’t behave myself.”

“That’s all you know.”

“She’s not that bloodthirsty,” Daniel said. “Oh, wait, though, she said she wanted to see me today, my back. I’d better go give her a call.” Jack watched him run off in amusement. No, Dannyboy wasn’t remotely afraid of Dr. Janet Fraiser.

* * *

Daniel waded through the layers of bureaucracy till he got through to the infirmary. Finally he got a nurse who asked him to wait. A few moments passed, and then, “Daniel, is there some problem?”

“I don’t know if you’ll think it’s one or not. We’re going to Denver for a few days, leaving as soon as everyone’s here.”

“And you’ve had breakfast!” Jack called from the kitchen.

“What was that?” Janet asked.

“Jack says we can’t leave until I’ve had breakfast,” Daniel replied. “Look, the reason I’m calling is that you wanted to see the burn today, so do you want us to swing by the base so you can --”

“No, Daniel, I emphatically don’t want you to swing by the base.” She paused thoughtfully. “Does it hurt?”

“A little. Less than it has.”

“Has Colonel O’Neill seen it?”

“Um . . . yeah, he has,” Daniel lied, realizing that they forgot to do the cream.

“Let me talk to him.”

“Just a minute.”

Daniel went into the kitchen. “Jack, Janet wants to talk to you.”

“What about?” the colonel asked, sounding vaguely alarmed.

“I sort of told her that you’d already seen the burn, because you should have already seen it.”

“Damn it, Daniel, you were supposed to come down with the cream and --”

“Not now, Jack,” Daniel said, waving at him to be quieter. “She has very good ears and she thinks you’ve already seen it.”

Jack’s eyes widened. “And she’s on the phone now? Waiting?”

Daniel nodded and started pulling his shirt up. He turned around so Jack could see his back and then said, “Go.” Keeping his shirt raised, he followed Jack to the phone, displaying the injury so he could still see it.

“No, doc, it’s not unduly red . . . No, no signs of irritation, either . . . We’ll keep an eye on it . . . Yes, we’ll keep an eye on him . . . If he starts flagging, we’ll find a nice stretch of grass somewhere and make him lie down . . . trust me, I’ll take good care of my archeologist . . . Okay, doc, we’ll try. See you in a week.” When Jack hung up the phone, Daniel turned around slowly. “Go get the cream. And dare I ask if you remembered to pack it and your antibiotics?”

Daniel flushed and left quickly without saying anything. The direction he went, upstairs towards the bathroom rather than downstairs towards his bag in the living room was answer enough, he thought. As he climbed the stairs, though, he got more and more irritated. If he started flagging? Jack would take good care of ‘his archeologist’?

He went back downstairs with his medicines, dropped the pills into his bag and then went to find Jack. Handing him the cream, Daniel pulled up his shirt again and stood still while Jack rubbed it into the skin. “So, does anyone think I’m capable of taking care of myself?” he asked.

Jack was silent for a moment. “Breakfast is ready,” he said, and Daniel took the plate he held out.

“You didn’t answer my question,” he said, not moving towards the table.

“Yes, Daniel, there are people who think you can take care of yourself,” Jack said. “I’m usually even one of them, but there are moments when . . . when I don’t.”

“Like now,” Daniel asked, grimacing and turning away finally, to go to the table.

“Like when you’re not feeling well. You tend to overdo. I’m the same way, so I recognize it when I see it.”

“I’m fine, Jack. There’s hardly any pain.”

“Maybe so, but you’re not fine, and we both know it.”

Daniel shook his head, then looked down at his plate. He didn’t want to talk about that. He might agree, but he wasn’t going to say it aloud. It would be too real, too much like admitting defeat.

“But you will be,” Jack said. “They appear to make archeologists out of rubber, because you just keep bouncing back.”

Daniel snorted. “I guess I do,” he said with that odd sad smile of his. “I always bounce back.”

Jack had a terrible sense of foreboding at the way he said it. Despite the fact that he knew it was borrowing trouble, he couldn’t help but fear that someday something would happen that Daniel wouldn’t bounce back from. He pushed the feeling away resolutely, but it seemed to haunt him.


	22. Chapter 22

Jack seemed quiet as they drove north out of town. It was midday and the traffic wasn’t so bad that it should be taking quite so much of his attention. Daniel didn’t mind a bit of quiet, but he didn’t seem comfortably quiet somehow. It was as if Jack were stuck in unpleasant thoughts. It was difficult, however, for Daniel to ask him about them when he was in the backseat behind Teal’c.

“So, where are we staying?” Sam asked Jack.

This seemed to jolt the colonel out of his reverie. “The Holiday Inn, Carter,” Jack said. “I hope you approve.”

Sam blinked a couple of times, and Daniel could see that she wasn’t entirely sure that she did approve. “I see, sir.”

“I got you and Teal’c rooms of your own and Daniel and I will bunk together.”

“That seems most satisfactory, O’Neill,” Teal’c said in his bass rumble. “When will we arrive in Denver?”

“Probably a little past one, one-thirty,” Jack said. “I figured we’d check into our hotel, then start talking about the sights we want to see. I think there’s a reasonable restaurant across the street from where we’re staying.”

“So, what kinds of things are people interested in doing?” Daniel asked. “And how many nights did you book, Jack?”

“Four. I figured we could cancel if we wanted to stay a shorter time, but that we didn’t want to have to switch rooms if we wanted to stay longer.”

Daniel decided that if he ever bought another car, he was testing out its backseat first to see if it was roomy enough. He and Sam were both having trouble finding places to put their legs. Neither Sam’s sporty little car nor Jack’s truck would remotely fit four, however, so his car was the only choice.

“Well, I thought we’d go to museums, the aquarium,” Sam said. “The zoo could be interesting. It would be an opportunity for Teal’c to see native wildlife.

“Six Flags,” Jack said with emphasis.

“That amusement park you mentioned?” Daniel asked.

“Six Flags Elitch Gardens,” Jack said. “It’s actually quite a pretty place, and they do school tours of the botanical gardens.” There was a silence in the car that threatened to drag on until Jack added, “I went on one last spring with that school I volunteer at. The kids loved it.”

“The Denver Art Museum has some interesting exhibits,” Daniel started, but they all turned and looked at him with varying expressions of dismay. Clearing his throat, he continued, “Some of which have nothing whatsoever to do with our job. You know, modern art . . . that kind of thing.”

“I think we could do modern art,” Jack said.

Daniel felt himself getting sleepy, which was more than a little annoying, but seeing as they were in a car and he’d been sleeping so much lately, it seemed a good opportunity to catch a nap.

He awoke with Sam touching his shoulder. “We’re here,” she said, smiling.

They checked into their rooms and then went to lunch at the ‘reasonable restaurant’ across the way, which turned out to be an excellent Thai place. As always when they were out, Teal’c wore a floppy hat to conceal his gold-filled tattoo. As always, it looked incredibly silly above the serious face of the Jaffa.

They settled in a corner booth and Jack said, “So, how about tomorrow we go to the natural history museum in the morning then, if we still want to, the art museum in the afternoon.”

“We could probably spend all day in the natural history museum, sir,” Sam said. “But we’ll see where we are.”

“Maybe we should ask Teal’c where he wants to go?” Daniel suggested.

“I would like to try miniature golf,” the big man said. “I have heard that it is most entertaining.”

“Miniature golf,” Jack repeated, lips twitching, and Daniel hoped desperately that he wasn’t going to laugh in Teal’c’s face. “I think that can be arranged,” he said. “We could do that tonight.”

“I would like that, O’Neill,” Teal’c said. “I have also heard that arcades are quite enjoyable.”

Daniel grinned. “You know, I think I’ve only been to an arcade once in my life,” he said. “And I’ve never been miniature golfing.”

He was unprepared for the three pairs of eyes suddenly turning to stare at him. “I was under the impression that miniature golf played an important part in childhood among the Tau’ri,” Teal’c said.

“Not exactly,” Daniel said. “It’s just something people do,” he said. “Right?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say an important part,” Sam said, “but I’d say most people our age have gone miniature golfing at least once. Was it because your parents were always out of the country?” She seemed to realize the impossibility of that suggestion since she knew his parents died when he was eight. Daniel turned away from the . . . was it pity in Sam’s eyes? The astonishment in Jack’s was no better.

“No, it wasn’t that, Sam,” he said. “I was pretty focused on schoolwork in those days, is all.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but they didn’t need to know all the details. “But it sounds like fun.”

Jack seemed to realize suddenly that they were all making Daniel feel about as conspicuous as they possibly could, so he started busily talking about the place he knew in town, and kept the conversation going about that until one of the others found a new topic to discuss.

Daniel didn’t know why he was so protective of his history. It wasn’t as if the others . . . well, he knew that Teal’c’s father was murdered by Cronos, that Sam’s mother was killed by a drunk driver, but he didn’t know the first thing about Jack’s past. How odd that he’d never asked. Of course, no one else had ever volunteered anything until it became relevant in the context of current events.

Jack put the bill on his credit card and said they could split things up later. Daniel wasn’t sure he was happy with that, but it didn’t seem the time to argue.

Playing miniature golf with Sam, Jack and Teal’c was not an experience Daniel would soon forget. Jack’s inane, childish antics made them all laugh, and Teal’c’s puzzled questions about customs drove Jack nuts, especially when Daniel, playing the anthropological observer to the hilt, answered them all at length.

Teal’c was the best scorer, with Jack close behind. Daniel didn’t mind finishing last, because he was having more fun watching the others relax and watching those around them play. They went into the arcade where Daniel watched while Jack explained the point behind a game that pitted two players against each other as opposing pilots in a World War II dogfight.

He wandered over to where Sam was feeding tokens into a game that looked totally archaic, called Centipede. Unlike so many of the games around it, the images were crude and poorly defined, but Sam seemed to be having fun. Daniel stood behind her and watched her rack the points up.

* * *

After playing a few rounds of Flying Ace with Teal’c, Jack looked around to see where Sam and Daniel had disappeared to. Sam was playing PacMan, which was just one in a row of classic video game machines that must have been added since the last time Jack had been here. He looked, bemused, at Space Invaders but then realized that Daniel was nowhere to be seen.

Despite the fact that they were on Earth, despite the fact that there had been no sign of any sort of threat, Jack felt the onset of a very familiar panic. He turned around quickly, scanning the arcade. Teal’c saw his change in posture and stiffened instantly, clearly realizing what had set his commanding officer off. He turned immediately and walked around the island in the middle of the arcade, leaving Jack to turn and scan the rest of the place. There were the skee ball machines, and the snack bar with half a dozen tables nearby . . . and there he was.

Jack walked swiftly towards the archeologist, who was on his knees, surrounded on all sides, head bowed. One of those surrounding Daniel looked up in alarm as he approached, and Jack, feeling a stab of guilt, moderated his expression.

“So, Daniel, where’d the kids come from?” he asked. The wide-eyed little girl who’d looked up him relaxed at his calm tone. She relaxed even more when Daniel looked up and smiled.

“That woman over . . . there,” Daniel said, pausing for a moment in the tying of another child’s shoelaces. Jack looked in the direction he was indicating and saw a feminine figure slipping swiftly out of the building. “She forgot her wallet. I tried to pay for her, but she wouldn’t let me.”

“So she left you alone with her kids?” Jack asked incredulously. Only Daniel.

The archeologist shrugged and finished tying the shoelace. He grinned at the little boy. “That’s better, isn’t it?” he asked. Very solemnly, the child, who couldn’t be more than four, nodded. He looked back up at Jack, then around at the four kids. “Let’s see if I’ve gotten this straight, shall we?” he said. “This is Nathan,” the shoelace boy, “Katrina,” the wide-eyed girl, who nodded, “Alexandra, and Zachary.” All four had brown hair, and the family resemblance was striking. Katrina looked about eight, Alexandra about six, and Zachary roughly five. “Kids, this is my friend Jack.”

“Hello,” Katrina said. Jack sat down on the bench of a nearby table and smiled at them. He glanced over to see if their mother was returning. She was, purse in hand, looking very embarrassed. As the woman approached, Katrina jumped forward. “Mama, this is Jack.”

The woman smiled distractedly at Jack and then turned to Daniel. “Thank you so much,” she said, her eyes warm. “Can I buy you something to make up for this?”

“No, it’s fine, Amanda,” Daniel replied, standing up. He seemed to totally miss the way the woman was gazing into his eyes. “I’ve already got some coffee,” he said, pointing to a cup next to Jack’s elbow.

“You’re amazing with children,” she said, taking a step closer. “Do you have any?”

Daniel shook his head, eyes going soft and vulnerable, obviously thinking of Sha’re, and possibly of Sha’re’s son, wherever he was. “No, I haven’t been that lucky,” he said, dropping his eyes.

Amanda responded instantly to that flash of unhappiness. “I’ve brought up some kind of bad memory, haven’t I? I’m sorry.”

Daniel looked up. “No, it’s okay,” he said, smiling sadly. “You couldn’t know. My wife . . . died not long ago.”

The woman blinked a couple of times. “I’m so sorry,” she said. Jack had to give her credit. She seemed to recognize that his grief was too new for her to use it as a means to get closer to him. “Well, thank you again,” she said, and took her little herd off with her.

“You are the biggest unconscious flirt I know,” Jack said. Daniel gave him a puzzled look, but Jack didn’t elaborate. He did, however, glance around and note that half the women in the room, including some teenagers, were looking at Daniel with longing.

“Daniel was not flirting,” Carter said firmly. Jack turned, surprised to see her at his elbow. Jack cocked a dubious eyebrow.

Daniel looked back and forth between them. “I didn’t think I was,” he said slowly. “But Jack knows a lot more about these things than I do.”

Carter rolled her eyes and gave Jack a look that said volumes. “I’m sure he does,” she said dryly. “Trust me, Daniel, you weren’t flirting.”

Looking vaguely uncomfortable, Daniel said, “Well, I think I’m going to go try my hand at skee ball. Maybe I can lose spectacularly to Teal’c.” The archeologist walked off, collaring Teal’c on the way.

Carter turned to Jack as he turned to follow them. “See, colonel, you’ve got it wrong. Daniel is just nice. The things most guys do to flirt are just part of his personality.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “The exaggerations, the making stuff up, the pretending to be interested in what she’s got to say? That stuff?”

Sam put her hands on her hips and glared up at him. “No,” she said. “Actually, I think it’s kind of a problem for him sometimes, though he doesn’t know it. When Daniel listens to you, he really pays attention, he hears what you’ve said and asks intelligent questions.” Jack nodded, uncertain where she was going. “Most women are only used to that sort of behavior out of men who are ‘interested’ in them.” She shrugged, glancing over at Daniel who was aiming very carefully. “They mistake Daniel’s natural interest in everyone for a particular interest in them.”

“Because they’re not used to it,” Jack said thoughtfully.

“And because they can sense the actual sincerity behind it.” She gave him a dark look. “Most of the time it’s actually pretty easy to tell when a guy’s pretending to be interested. Women respond not because they believe it, but because it’s a good effort.” With that she walked off, leaving Jack feeling more than a little insulted and very firmly put in his place.


	23. Chapter 23

When they returned to the hotel, Teal’c was in possession of two small stuffed bunnies, one blue, one green. He had considered them very seriously for a time, then declared that he would give them to General Hammond for his granddaughters. Daniel had agreed solemnly that this was an excellent notion.

“We do not have such games on Chulak,” he said. “We have games of chance, but not such as that, nor for such . . . prizes.” He seemed bemused by the trinkets that had been on display to be purchased with tickets from the skee ball game.

“I think it’s sort of a mating ritual,” Daniel said, knowing it would get a rise out of Jack.

“A mating ritual?” Jack exclaimed on cue. “Please!”

“No, really, Jack. Adolescents, probably in a group, go to the arcade. A boy wins the prize and gives it to the girl of his choice. It’s a mating ritual.”

“The Tau’ri seem to have a great many inconsistent mating customs,” Teal’c said. “How does one know which to apply?”

Daniel stared at him for a moment. “Frankly, Teal’c, I have no idea.”

“It depends a great deal on the girl,” Jack said. “And the signals she’s giving.”

“I think arranged marriages are easier,” Teal’c said.

Daniel nodded. “My arranged marriage was very happy,” he said. “But not all of them work out so well.”

There was silence for a moment, and Daniel realized that by mentioning Sha’re he might have put an end to the conversation. Then Sam cleared her throat. “No offense, Daniel, but I wouldn’t want an arranged marriage.”

“Oh, I wasn’t advocating a mass switch,” Daniel said. “I just got very lucky.” And then very, very unlucky, his mind finished for him, but he declined to say the words aloud. The others were uncomfortable enough with what he’d already said. “So, Thai for dinner, or are you feeling that adventurous, Jack?”

“Actually,” Sam said, “I don’t think I’m up to that level of spice twice in one day.”

“I was going to suggest Mexican,” Jack said. “But that sounds like it might have to wait. How about a steak house?”

This being unanimously approved, they went to dinner, then returned to the hotel. Daniel was all for finding someplace with good music, but the others eyed him dubiously and firmly determined that it was time for the baby to go to bed. It was very frustrating, but when they got back to the hotel, Daniel had to admit, if only to himself, that he was very tired. The skin on his back felt stiff, like he’d been stretching too much or not enough. It also itched.

Jack accompanied him to the room and as soon as they were inside said, “Okay, get your shirt off, Daniel, let’s see how that burn is healing.” Daniel walked over to the dresser and pulled his keys and wallet out of his pockets, ignoring Jack. He took off his watch, put his glasses down and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Daniel!”

Rolling his eyes, Daniel started unbuttoning his shirt. Jack was reaching for Daniel’s suitcase, presumably looking for the medicine. “I put it in the bathroom, Jack,” Daniel said.

Looking irritated, Jack went into the bathroom and reappeared with the tube. It was more than half gone now. “Are we going to run out of this?” he asked.

“If we do, I can just call the pharmacy and have them transfer the prescription to someplace local,” Daniel said, pulling his shirt off. Jack walked up and stood behind him for a moment, not applying the cream. “Well?”

“This looks diseased,” Jack said.

Daniel glared at his friend over his shoulder and pulled his shirt back on. “That’s it. Forget the cream.”

“Daniel!” Jack exclaimed. “I’m sorry, it’s just, it’s peeling and it looks pretty gross. Maybe you should scrub it or something to get the dead skin off before we medicate it.”

Daniel dropped his chin to his chest. “How exactly am I supposed to scrub something there?” he asked. “It’s not really in reach.”

“And a scrub brush could be pretty painful,” Jack agreed. He paused for a moment. “Okay, Daniel, let’s get into the bathroom. I’ll grab a washcloth and scrub it for you.”

Blinking, Daniel turned around. “You’ll scrub it for me?”

“Yeah.”

“Isn’t that just a little above and beyond the call of duty?”

“For who?” Jack asked, raising an eyebrow. “A CO, maybe. A friend, I don’t think so. You’d do it if I needed it.”

“Fine.” Sighing, Daniel led the way into the bathroom. Jack went over and started the tub. “What are you doing?” the archeologist asked as he started to pull off his shirt.

“You need to soak for a bit before I scrub, Daniel,” Jack said. “Soften the skin up to make it easier to pull it off.”

“Right,” Daniel said. He went back out and grabbed his sweat pants. Going back into the bathroom, he evicted Jack and said, “How long?”

“Ten minutes, I’d say.”

“Okay.” Shutting the door, Daniel got into the tub and lay back to let his back soak. Before he knew it, he heard knocking on the door.

“Hey! Did you drown?”

He sat up, squeezing his eyes shut briefly. Hell, he’d fallen asleep that quickly? He told himself it was the hot water as he climbed out and dried off. Pulling on the sweatpants, he opened the door for Jack. “Sorry, I guess I nodded off.”

“I thought you said you weren’t sleepy,” Jack said dryly as he started getting the water from the sink tap warm. Daniel didn’t respond. Once the water met his criteria, Jack soaked a washcloth and turned towards him. This was embarrassing as hell.

“Ready?” Jack asked. Turning around, Daniel crossed his arms and waited. Jack started gently rubbing the washcloth across his skin, causing very little discomfort, but easing the itching immensely. He kept pausing to rinse the cloth, and finally he stopped. Taking up a hand towel, he patted the skin dry. “And now for the medicine.”

Finally medicated, Daniel turned and said, “I know you guys were going to play poker. Go for it. I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?” Jack asked.

Daniel nodded. “Go. You’ll only be in the next room, after all.”

Jack nodded and said, “Good night. I’ll try not to wake you when I come in.”

Daniel got into bed as Jack left and picked up a book. He managed to read three words before his eyes closed. He put the book on the bedside table, turned off the lamp above his bed and curled up to go to sleep.

* * *

Jack pulled the door shut behind him, listening for the click. After pushing on it lightly to make sure it hadn’t failed to latch, he walked to the next room, where Sam was staying. He knocked and the door opened immediately.

“Come in, sir,” Sam said. “Teal’c’s shuffling. Daniel go to sleep, or did he have some problems?”

“Nope, just medicine,” Jack said. “What are we playing?”

“Aces high, twos are wild,” Teal’c said.

Jack grinned and sat down. Sam put a beer at his elbow then sat down next to him. It was a pity Daniel wasn’t up to joining them. He’d have endless joy analyzing the role gambling played in modern American society.

* * *

It felt like he was waking up every five minutes. The bed was strange, the place was strange, and Daniel was alone. He felt like an idiot. He hadn’t been this nervous about sleeping alone in years, and he knew it wasn’t sensible. Jack was only next door, and it wasn’t like Jack was in the room with him back at the house. If it wouldn’t make him feel even more like a pathetic wimp, he’d ask the others to come in here and play. As tired as he was, he was sure he’d sleep through it.

Finally, he got up and opened the little mini-bar. One thing alcohol would do for him was put him out like a light. He took two little bottles of brandy and a bottle of water out. He drank the brandy, making a face at the flavor, and then drank the bottle of water to stave off dehydration and thus the unpleasantness of a hangover.

Tossing them all in the trash, he went back to bed and waited for the alcohol to take effect.

* * *

Jack stretched as he and Teal’c left Sam’s room. It was late, and he was tired. “Night, Teal’c, night, Carter,” he said as he slid his key card into its slot. Opening the door as quietly as possible, he slipped inside and walked in. Glancing across the room, he saw that Daniel was asleep, his mouth open, snoring gently.

He emptied out his pockets on the dresser as Daniel had several hours before. There were a couple of candy wrappers in his pocket so he tossed them into the trash can, noticing as he did so that there were two dark brown bottles already there. He picked up one of them, pushing aside the water bottle to do so. Brandy. He glanced over again at the peacefully slumbering Daniel. Had he needed some extra help to fall asleep? Or was he finding solace in the bottle? Jack would have to keep an eye out.

In the meantime, the archeologist was asleep, and Jack was tired. He changed quickly and got himself cleaned up. Then he climbed into bed and pulled the covers up. Daniel hadn’t stirred since he came in which was probably a good sign.


	24. Chapter 24

The Natural History Museum was fun even if it did give both Carter and Daniel multiple opportunities to lecture for long stretches of time. At one point, they wound up in front of an exhibit on early man, and Daniel started talking. A museum guide had been giving a spiel when they turned up, and within minutes, one of the people on the tour hissed at her to hush, pointing to Daniel. Silence fell as the whole room listened to the archeologist babble happily. The funny thing was, Daniel didn’t even notice, though Jack exchanged an amused glance with Carter.

Shortly thereafter, the guide turned up without a tour group and followed them inconspicuously from exhibit to exhibit, listening to Daniel’s babble with unconcealed interest.

Jack looked at Carter. “You know, it’s probably a good thing he’s no longer a professor,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked, looking astounded.

“That combination of enthusiasm, good looks and intense listening would get him into trouble with his female students quickly.”

Carter looked over at the guide and at Daniel, totally oblivious to her, and nodded. “You’re probably right, sir, sad as that is. He’d make a great teacher.”

Abruptly, Daniel broke off the lecture and squatted, looking closely at the placard at the front of the exhibit. “This is wrong,” he said.

Jack walked up and looked down. “What do you mean?”

“Well, it says the skull in this display was found in 1936 by Thomas R. Peters.”

“So?”

“That Tom Peters didn’t study ancient man. He was a paleontologist. He studied dinosaurs.”

“Couldn’t he have found it by mistake?” Jack asked.

“He was also three in 1936,” Daniel pointed out. “No, I remember reading about this discovery in college. It was Thomas J. Peters who found this skull, assuming it’s even the right skull.” The archeologist squinted suspiciously up at the skull on display.

“Maybe you should write them a letter,” Jack said.

“I’ve got it,” said a very quiet voice. The guide swallowed nervously, a pad of paper in one hand, a pen in the other. “Sir, if I can ask, who are you?”

Daniel looked up at her, took in her uniform and said, “Dr. Daniel Jackson.”

The girl’s eyes grew very wide and she jotted that down, too. “Thank you. Excuse me.” She nodded at them and left quickly, blushing to the roots of her hair.

Jack was surprised that Daniel hadn’t apologized given that he’d obviously embarrassed the young woman, but Daniel’s expression was slightly disapproving as he turned back to the exhibit. “Don’t they proofread these things?” he asked.

“Daniel, mistakes happen,” Sam said.

The archeologist glared over at her. “If this was a physics exhibit, and they’d put in a mathematician as having made a major discovery in astrophysics that you knew had been made by someone else, you’d be livid, Sam.”

Jack raised his eyebrows and glanced over at Carter who bit her lip and didn’t say anything.

Teal’c said, “Is this not an institution of learning?”

“Exactly my point,” Daniel said, gesturing towards him with a pointed look at Sam, who cleared her throat and looked away.

“Then I agree,” Teal’c continued, “the information provided should be accurate. We have done what we can to remedy the situation, however, so perhaps we should move on.”

“Right,” Daniel said, and walked to the next exhibit. Jack was thankful that they had very little of the early man section of the museum left, because Daniel scrutinized each placard with painful intensity, looking for further errors. Fortunately, he didn’t find any, and they moved on to the animal science exhibits. These were oddly relaxing. None of them were particularly knowledgeable about biology, so the lectures stopped for the time being.

As they turned a corner, a voice shouted out from behind them. “Dr. Jackson!”

Jack whirled as Daniel turned, unable to keep himself from reacting as if they were off planet, and every person who approached them was a potential threat. Carter put a hand on his arm. “Easy, colonel,” she said quietly.

A man roughly Daniel’s age ran up. He had sandy brown hair, dark eyes, and was immensely ordinary looking. Someone you’d have trouble describing five minutes after meeting him.

“Michael!” Daniel said with a pleased grin. “Michael Paxton! What are you doing here?”

“I work here,” Michael said. Crossing his arms, he tilted his head. “I might ask you the same thing, only since you totally vanished from the academic community four years ago, I think I have a better reason.”

Daniel nodded slowly. “We’re visiting.” Michael looked around at the rest of them, just seeming to notice them. Daniel flushed. “Oh, right. Sorry, Michael. These are Colonel Jack O’Neill, Major Samantha Carter and . . . Teal’c.” He seemed momentarily uncertain how to handle the unorthodox name, but gave up the struggle. Turning to them, he said, “Jack, Sam, Teal’c, this is Dr. Michael Paxton. He’s an anthropologist and . . . I guess you’re a curator now?”

Paxton nodded at them, but he seemed startled by their titles. He also seemed strongly focused on Daniel, pulling him slightly aside from the others. He spoke so quietly that Jack couldn’t hear him, but Daniel’s response was loud enough. “Suicide? You’ve got to be kidding! No, I didn’t -- I never would have -- that’s ridiculous!”

Jack started drifting closer, exchanging a worried look with Sam and Teal’c. Daniel’s colleagues had thought him a candidate for suicide? That jarred strongly with Jack’s memories of that first trip to Abydos, when Daniel had asserted quite firmly that he wanted to live. As he drew closer, Daniel shot a glance at him and said, “It’s a long story, and not really important.”

“What do you do, though? You haven’t done anything in the field for years.”

Daniel shrugged. “Actually, I work for the Air Force as a linguist.”

“You work for the military?” Paxton said disbelievingly. “As a linguist? But that’s -- that’s so -- look, Daniel, I have a position open here, right now. We need another anthropologist. It’s a junior position, but it would be a way back into the field.”

Jack felt his breath catch in his throat. A job in anthropology? He couldn’t imagine Daniel not wanting that, not wanting a way back into his old life. His reason for joining the Stargate Program in the first place was gone and finding Sha’re’s child was looking like more and more of a pipe dream . . . Jack didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want to lose Daniel on SG-1, but after recent events he didn’t feel he could ask the man to stay if he wanted to go.

Daniel grinned at Paxton, and Jack watched him closely, half-expecting him to eagerly leap at the offer of a passage back into academia. “Thanks, Michael, I appreciate the suggestion more than you can know, but I’m really happy with what I do now.”

“But it’s such a limited use of your skills, Daniel. I know you’ve always been fascinated by languages, but --”

Daniel glanced over at the rest of them. “Why don’t you walk with us, Michael? My friends will want to see the rest of the exhibits, and we can talk.”

The anthropologist nodded and they all started walking again. Both Sam and Teal’c seemed as unnerved by this apparition from Daniel’s academic life as Jack was.

* * *

Daniel walked behind the others with Michael, who seemed utterly baffled. “I don’t get it, Daniel, I would never picture you working on a military base, surrounded by dumb grunts.”

Daniel shook his head. “Not dumb grunts, that’s the Marines,” he corrected, giving Michael a sideways grin. “And the Marines call the Air Force guys flyboys. Jack and Sam are both Air Force, but it’s kind of a mixed service task force that I’m working with. Even so, most of the guys I deal with directly are Air Force.” He kept going when it looked like Michael was going to respond. “So, what are you doing these days? What’s your position here at the museum?”

He started talking, and Daniel listened with interest. They’d been undergraduates in anthropology together, many years ago, long before either of them had done anything of interest to the broader academic community.

“I published a paper about six months ago on --”

“Social practices among the nomadic Mongol tribes of the Chinese steppe,” Daniel said. “That must have been an interesting research project.”

“You read it?”

“I keep up with all the journals I can,” Daniel replied. “And when I see something by an old friend, well, it naturally draws my attention.”

“See, I knew it, you really should be here, working with me, not working with the Air Force on some military project.” Daniel shook his head, but Michael persevered. “Come on, Daniel, think about it. I’ve got an enormous pile of work that needs to be done, things need to be cataloged, interpreted, and it’s what you really set out to do. I mean, frankly, you’re probably better qualified for my job than I am, so it’s nuts for me to suggest you come to work for me, but . . .” He shrugged. “I just don’t understand how you can possibly be getting anything out of working with the military.”

“It’s hard to explain,” Daniel said, not wanting to explain that his job was classified. Michael was one of the most curious men he knew, and that would be like a red flag before a bull. “I do enjoy it though. I really don’t see much of a future for myself in the academic community.”

“The academic community,” Michael repeated, sounded disgusted. “Yeah, I know. I went to a symposium in Philadelphia a few months ago, and Brindleman put forward this theory about . . . well it doesn’t matter . . . but his theory had nothing like the background and support yours had, but it’s trendy so he’s the toast of the ‘academic community.’”

Daniel blinked, surprised. “So, Brindleman’s theories have met with widespread approval? The journals I’ve read don’t reflect that. It all seems pretty lukewarm on paper.”

“You know how that is, Daniel,” Michael said. “They don’t want to be too enthusiastic in print just in case someone proves Brindleman wrong. His theories are sound in principle, but his evidence is spotty at best. But as I said, it’s trendy, so people are talking about his brilliance, but not putting that down on paper.”

“To be on the safe side,” Daniel said. “But they’re also not making any effort to disprove him.” He shook his head. “Mass neutrality. It’s almost insulting.”

“Brindleman is beginning to pick up on that,” Michael said. “It’s kind of sad, really, because I think he genuinely thought he had their support. They were vocal enough, but the reviews just haven’t met the expectations he naturally had after his reception.”

“How old is Brindleman?”

“Oh, I think he’s close to forty, but this is the first time he’s ever really hit the spotlight, and he was always kind of a wallflower before. I think his university rushed him to press.”

Daniel shuddered. “Ouch. That’s not good. Is he still looking for evidence, or is he sitting on his laurels?”

Michael snorted. “Laurel-sitting, I think. If he is looking for evidence, he’s being very quiet about it. Trouble is, I don’t think he’s likely to find any even if he looks. There are a couple of other people with some rival theories that look more promising. Whitman, Everett Whitman, is working on one right now, actually, and he’s got a lot of solid research behind him. Joyce Marsh is his assistant, and she’s sharp as they come.”

“I remember her, dimly. She published some interesting stuff as an undergrad, if I recall correctly.”

“The great hope of the archeological community,” Michael said.

“I hope she lives up to expectations. It’s no fun to miss the mark.”

Michael shook his head. “You didn’t miss the mark, Daniel. You were dead on target, I think. Not that I’m entirely comfortable saying so, truth be told, it’s hard to believe. But your evidence is good. I read it all, back to front, and I know a couple of people double checked the carbon dating you did. It’s solid. It’s just that no one wants to accept the possibility that you’re right.”

“Which is one of the reasons why coming back isn’t a great option for me, Michael,” Daniel said. “No matter what I did, even if I recanted everything --”

“Which you wouldn’t do,” Michael interrupted.

“Which I wouldn’t do,” Daniel confirmed. “There just really isn’t anything for me in academia anymore,” he said, shrugging. “Even leaving those theories aside, the academic community still wouldn’t want to hear what I have to say. I’m the black sheep of the family and no one besides a few mavericks would want me around.”

“Still, it’s a ludicrous waste of talent that you’re out there translating military documents or whatever while --”

“Believe me,” Jack said suddenly, “his talents aren’t wasted.”

“Oh, do you work with him?” Michael asked Jack.

“He’s sort of my boss, actually,” Daniel said. “In a manner of speaking.”

“Immediate supervisor,” Jack corrected, dropping back to walk with them.

“So, what exactly does he do?” Michael asked.

“Hard to explain,” Jack said, echoing Daniel. Michael raised his eyebrow, and Daniel sensed the potential for trouble ahead. “See, it’s classified.”

Seeing Michael’s avid look, Daniel started rubbing his forehead. He’d successfully avoided the pitfalls only to have Jack steer right into one. “Is he serious?” Michael asked, turning to Daniel.

“Yes, actually, he is,” Daniel said.

“So, what, you’re translating classified . . . like war documents?” He stopped dead in his tracks, staring at Daniel. “You’re like a spy?”

“No, no, I’m not a spy,” Daniel said, stopping as well. “Michael --”

“I knew you liked those James Bond movies too much.”

Jack gave Daniel a startled look. “You like James Bond? I didn’t know that.”

Daniel shrugged. “He had a cool car,” he said to Jack. “And even if I did translate ‘war documents,’ whatever that means, it wouldn’t make me a spy.”

“Yeah, he’s nothing like James Bond,” Jack said, looking thoughtful. “More like Rambo.”

Sam let out a snicker, and Daniel rolled his eyes at Michael’s astonished look. “I am nothing like Rambo, Jack,” he growled.

“What is a Rambo?” Teal’c asked.

Michael’s eyes widened still further as that sank in. “Where is he from?” he asked.

“Chulak,” Teal’c said.

Watching Michael’s eyebrows climb, Daniel said, “That’s a small village in east Africa. Not really in any country, it keeps switching because it’s right on several borders.”

“Hey, that sucks, man,” Michael said.

Teal’c raised an eyebrow and said, “It does?”

Sam grabbed his arm and said, “Teal’c, I’ve got something over here I want to show you.” She dragged him off, but Michael was looking at Daniel oddly.

“Teal’c still hasn’t entirely grasped idiomatic English,” Daniel said. “He’s part of a cultural exchange between his military and ours.”

“I see,” Michael said. “Daniel, do you know how full of shit you sound?”

Daniel shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”

“Something that makes sense,” Michael replied.


	25. Chapter 25

Jack raised an eyebrow at this interchange between the two men. Apart from his need to maintain the secrets, Daniel seemed utterly comfortable with this man, and in Jack’s experience, that wasn’t a common situation. He looked appraisingly at Paxton. He didn’t seem particularly in shape, but neither was he chubby. “Are you a linguist?” he asked abruptly.

“I beg your pardon?” Paxton asked.

“Are you a linguist?” Jack repeated.

“Jack, what are you doing?” Daniel asked suspiciously.

Paxton shrugged. “Not on Daniel’s level by any means, but yes, I’m a linguist.”

“And you’re an anthropologist . . . not an archeologist by any chance?”

“No,” Michael said. “What is this, twenty questions?”

“Jack? ” Daniel asked. “What are you up to?

Jack looked at Michael, who was gazing at him warily. “Just a minute,” he said. Putting an arm around Daniel’s shoulders and pulling him out of earshot, he said, “Think he could fit back at the garage?”

Daniel glanced back at Michael, then said, “I don’t know, maybe. Jack, what are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that you need more support personnel than you have at this point. It’s enough to make me crazy, because you’re always up to your elbows in work, and there just isn’t anyone else to do most of it. So, he’s a linguist. Is he flexible?”

“If you mean linguistically, I guess so.” Daniel pursed his lips. “Jack, you don’t even know this guy. What makes you think he’d be any good at our line of work?”

“I don’t know. There’s a certain air about him,” Jack replied, glancing back at the man. He’d seemed pretty cool all along. “And you seem to get along with him okay.”

“You know, he may be perfectly happy working here.”

“But he definitely seems to think that people should do worthwhile things with their talents,” Jack pointed out. “And what could be more worthwhile than what we’re doing?”

“Jack, he’s out here educating the future anthropologists of America,” Daniel said.

Jack couldn’t figure out exactly why Daniel was arguing with him. “There won’t be any future anthropologists if we don’t do our job right, Daniel,” he said.

Michael cleared his throat. “Are you two just going to stand there arguing all day or what?”

“Sorry,” Daniel said. “Jack’s just . . .” He sighed. Jack watched him work through his thoughts. “Jack’s just what?” Jack asked. “Look, Paxton, you’re a linguist, an anthropologist, and you seem to be a pretty flexible thinker. Would you like a job doing something you never dreamed possible?”

“Jack!” Daniel exclaimed.

Jack turned and raised his eyebrows. “What, Daniel?” he asked. Daniel looked back at him helplessly, and Jack grinned. He knew what Daniel was thinking. It was a hard and fast rule. If you had a potential candidate, you didn’t approach them first. You let the mucky-mucks know who they were so they could figure out if they were suitable on other levels before approaching them. He chose, however, to misconstrue Daniel’s consternation. “I know it’s your staff I’m talking about here, but still . . . he obviously has potential, so why not find out if he’s even interested before mentioning anything to Hammond?”

“Wait, let me get this straight, you guys are offering me a job where I’d be working under Daniel?”

“Not offering,” Daniel said quickly. “We don’t have that authority. You have to go through a background check and a bunch of other things before anyone would offer you the job, and at that point it wouldn’t be us.”

Michael looked back and forth between them. “You don’t just work as a linguist, do you?” he asked Daniel.

“That’s classified,” Jack said before Daniel could respond. “And there’s not a hell of a lot we could tell you beforehand, to be honest. Just that it’s enough to keep Daniel busy for the rest of his life, and that he’s happy doing it.”

Michael stared at Jack for a long moment, then bit his lip. “Look, I don’t know. Let me think on it for a bit.” He glanced at his watch. “I have a meeting I have to get to.”

* * *

Daniel grinned at him. “Back to the grind, huh?” He glanced over at Jack who seemed to have wound down a bit now that Michael had asked for time to think. He and Michael walked a bit away from Jack as he dug in his back pocket. “Look, here’s my card.”

“This doesn’t say anything about the Air Force,” Michael said.

“No, it doesn’t, and that’s my home number,” he replied pointing. “This is just a way to contact me, if you want to. I’m not going to be home for a few days, though, so if you want to call me, use the cell phone.”

“Great,” Michael said. “Well, I’m glad I saw you.” He pulled to his own card and scrawled a number on the back. “That’s my home number. Don’t lose touch, okay?”

“Okay,” Daniel said. Then Michael gave him a solid smack on the back, right between his shoulder blades.

It felt as if he’d had a knife in his hand. Sudden, totally unexpected pain shot through Daniel, sending him stumbling forward a couple of steps. He let out a harsh cry, drawing the attention of everyone in the room, which meant all of his teammates and a half dozen or so museum patrons. The suddenness and intensity of the pain made his head spin and he sat down abruptly, putting his head between his knees.

Above him, he heard Michael exclaim. “Daniel! What -- what did I do?”

“What _did_ you do?” Jack demanded, sounding angry.

Daniel took slow deep breaths. “S’okay, Jack, was an accident,” he said.

Jack squatted down behind him. “You okay, Daniel?”

“What’s the matter, sir?” Sam asked.

“DanielJackson does not look well,” Teal’c observed brilliantly.

“I’m sorry, I just -- I just gave him a pat on the back, you know. I don’t understand.”

Daniel felt Jack pulling the collar of his shirt out slightly. “Damn it,” he muttered. “Daniel, we’re going to have to head back to the hotel. You’re bleeding.”

The words ‘I’m fine’ died on his lips as he felt blood trickle down his spine. “How bad is it?” he asked.

“What are you asking me for?” Jack asked. “You’re the one on the floor. Come on, let’s get him up.”

“I will carry him,” Teal’c said.

Daniel got to his feet with Jack’s help, but he took a step back from Teal’c. “No,” he said firmly. “I can walk.” Michael was still staring at him, white-faced. “It’s okay, Michael, you didn’t know. I have a burn, and the skin is pretty fragile.”

This seemed to break Michael out of his frozen dismay. “There’s a nurse’s station over this way. I mean, we don’t have a nurse, but there are plenty of supplies. You could at least get him patched up a little.”

“Great, take us there,” Sam said.

“Daniel, you look a little unsteady on your feet,” Jack said, still gripping his arm. Teal’c was looming beside him, looking mean enough to scare off hordes of attackers, much less one well meaning old friend who didn’t know his own strength.

“It hurts,” Daniel said. “It’s no big deal, I just wasn’t expecting it.” The curious stares of other patrons followed them as they went after Michael towards this ‘nurse’s station.’ Daniel felt like an idiot, and incredibly conspicuous. “I can walk, Jack.”

“If I didn’t think you could walk, Daniel, Teal’c would be carrying you.”

Grateful that he wasn’t experiencing that humiliation, Daniel walked between Teal’c and Jack into a small room that, thank heavens, had a door to block prying eyes. Jack very gently guided him to a chair.

“All the supplies are right here,” Michael said. “It’s pretty basic stuff, really, but . . . I don’t understand. I didn’t do anything that --” Daniel heard Sam hush him and start a low-voiced explanation.

“Shirt off, Daniel,” Jack ordered.

Daniel turned his head and looked at him, letting his eyes stray to Michael to try and get the point across. “Don’t be a nit, Daniel,” Michael said, apparently seeing the gesture. “We went on field trips together!”

“Daniel, get the shirt off or I’ll cut it off,” Jack said, and Daniel heard the snip of a pair of scissors. The notion of making his way out of the museum shirtless on top of everything else made him relent. He started unbuttoning.

When he heard the sound of a phone being dialed behind him, he turned. “What are you doing, Jack?”

“Calling Fraiser,” he said.

“No, Jack, there’s no need for that!” Daniel protested. “She’ll want me to come back.”

“It’s my ass that gets court-martialed if I don’t,” Jack said.

“Janet doesn’t have that authority.” Daniel glared at him. Jack made a meaningful gesture with his scissors and Daniel grimaced. He started to pull his shirt off, but pain made him hiss. It felt as if the fabric was stuck to him in back.

Huge, gentle hands started easing the shirt off his shoulders, and Daniel heard Jack talking on the phone. “No, I need Dr. Fraiser and I need her now . . . no, it’s not an emergency, but I still need to talk to her right away . . . is there an emergency on base right now?” There was a pause, and Daniel closed his eyes. Great, another stream of gossip to hit the rumor mill. “This is Colonel O’Neill, _sergeant,”_ Jack said with acid sarcasm. “Get me Dr. Fraiser -- no, I don’t want a nurse.”

“Jack, could you lay --” Daniel broke off with a hiss.

“I do not think stitches would be appropriate, DanielJackson,” Teal’c said. “The skin is too fragile.”

“Damn!” That was Michael, and Daniel closed his eyes with despair. “What the hell happened to you? It looks like someone stuck an iron against your back!”

“That is not entirely correct,” Teal’c said, and before Daniel could stop him, he went on. “It was not an iron.”

“Are you saying someone actually _did_ that to him?” Michael demanded. “An accident, right?” Daniel could hear that Michael didn’t really believe it had been an accident.

“It was not,” Teal’c said.

“Doc, what the hell is going on over there? No one --” Jack stopped and listened. Daniel really, truly wished that the floor would open up and swallow him right now. That feeling only intensified when Jack continued. “Daniel’s bleeding.”

“Great,” Daniel growled. “Make it sound like I’m dying or something. It’s not that big a --” He broke off again. Though Teal’c’s ministrations were gentle, it still hurt when he pressed the cloth against his back to staunch the flow of blood.

Michael came around in front of him and squatted so they were face to face. “I’m really sorry, Daniel, I didn’t mean --”

“Don’t worry, Michael,” Daniel gritted through his teeth. “You couldn’t have known. I wouldn’t have --” He broke off again as Teal’c drew the cloth away. He let out a stream of imprecations in Abydonian.

“Daniel, I said I was sorry,” Michael exclaimed, looking startled. Daniel knew he couldn’t even come close to understanding him, Ancient Egyptian not being one of his languages, but the angry tone was unmistakable.

“I do not believe he was referring to you,” Teal’c said in his quiet, serious voice. “I believe he is referring to the one who did this to him.”

“Thanks, Teal’c,” Daniel grunted.

“Teal’c,” Sam said in a chiding voice. “Don’t forget, all of this is classified.”

“No, it’s not a new injury precisely, doc,” Jack said. “Someone gave him a smack on the back and it broke through the skin of the burn . . . I guess you could say it’s superficial.”

To Daniel’s relief, Sam seized the phone from Jack. “Janet? It is superficial. It’s about four inches across, though.” Daniel’s short-lived relief. What was it with them? “I don’t know how much pain he’s in. I’d guess a fair amount because he was . . . yes, I could ask him.”

Heedless of the pain, Daniel grabbed the phone. “Janet?”

“Daniel, what happened?”

“Look, I’m fine, Janet. It hurts, but I can take some of those pills you gave me and I’ll be fine.”

“Daniel, I don’t want to hear the word fine from you. Exactly how much does it hurt? On a scale of one to ten.”

“Ten being . . .” Daniel asked.

“Labor pains!” she snapped.

“How would I know what labor pains feel like?” he demanded.

“And five being a zat blast,” she continued, ignoring his exclamation.

“Fine, a three then.” Teal’c pressed the cloth against his back again and Daniel hissed. “Okay, maybe a four. Look, can’t you just tell them how to bandage the damned thing? I don’t really like the idea of adhesive tape on that skin.”

“Tell them to take you to an emergency room,” Janet said. “I’m not happy with the level of competence either Major Carter or Colonel O’Neill is showing.”

“Janet, I’m not going to an emergency room.”

“DanielJackson, if you would give me the phone?” Teal’c requested politely. “MichaelPaxton, would you apply gentle, even pressure along this dressing?”

Michael did as he was asked and, after a moment, Daniel did, too. “Janet, I’m giving the phone to Teal’c.

“Dr. Fraiser, it will not be necessary to take DanielJackson to an emergency room,” Teal’c said. “I am perfectly capable of applying an appropriate field dressing.” There was a pause. “I do not believe so. After a night of rest, I think he will be well enough to continue on our outing.” Another pause. “The tear is approximately four inches in length, as Major Carter said, but the bleeding is already slowing. I will put antibiotic ointment on the injury and keep it dressed for the next two days until we return. If there are any signs of inflammation or infection, I will call you immediately.” This was apparently satisfactory, for a moment later he said, “Yes, Dr. Fraiser, I will. Thank you, Dr. Fraiser.”

He handed the phone back to Jack, and said, “I must tape the dressing to your back, DanielJackson, but rest assured, the dressing will be large enough that the tape will not touch the fragile skin of the wound.”

“Thanks, Teal’c,” Daniel said.

Michael relinquished the pressure to Teal’c and came back around in front of him. “Is this a work related injury?” he asked.

Daniel gave him a tight smile. “It is,” he said. “And I can’t tell you anything else. It really is classified.”

“If you’re that badly hurt, what are you doing out at museums?” Michael asked, his own guilty feelings making his voice sharp as he glared up at the others. “Are they taking good enough care of you?”

“This really isn’t all that bad,” Daniel said. Michael’s eyes widened as he took in the obvious corollary of that statement. “You just caught me at the wrong spot. Pure bad luck.”

“There, the bandage is applied,” Teal’c said. “The injury continues to bleed, though sluggishly. I believe we should go back to the hotel and DanielJackson should go to bed.”

“Goody, more bed rest.” Daniel grimaced. “Do you know how much I hate bed rest?”

“If you take those pain pills the doc prescribed, you probably won’t notice,” Jack said.

Daniel groaned. “Okay, give me my shirt and let’s go,” he said, standing up. Michael was now looking at the remnants of the burns on his chest and gut. “Give me a call sometime, Michael,” he said. “We’ll be in Denver until the day after tomorrow, but I’ll be home after that.”

“Um . . . Daniel?” Jack said, and he remembered that he hadn’t been released to stay home alone.

“Well, I’ll be picking up my messages at any rate,” Daniel said. “And there’s always the cellular.”

“Sure,” Michael said, looking dubious. “I really am sorry I hurt you.”

“It’s okay.” Daniel grinned at him while buttoning up his shirt. “It could be worse.”

They left the museum and Daniel waited with Teal’c and Sam while Jack went to find the car. Teal’c helped him gently into the backseat, where he didn’t lean back at all, then the Jaffa walked around the car and climbed in next to Jack. Daniel closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the back of the driver’s seat. “Well, I’m never going to hear from him again,” he said.

“I don’t think that’s true, Daniel,” Sam said. “You’re right, it was just bad luck.”

“Do I have any other kind?”


	26. Chapter 26

Jack felt like a complete idiot. He drove very carefully through town, no doubt earning curses and irritation from other drivers as he made sure to keep his speed changes very gradual so that he wouldn’t jerk Daniel around too much. Why had he been so moronic? He never turned into a gibbering idiot when Daniel was hurt on a mission. What was so different about this?

And the fact that he felt better because Carter had been just as bad as he was didn’t help any. He’d never thought much of people who needed other people to fail to feel good about themselves. He wished there had been something he could do to prevent it, but short of telling everyone they ran into that Daniel had a nasty burn in the middle of his back, there wasn’t much he could do. And somehow he thought Daniel would object to that.

They got Daniel up to the hotel room, but then they were stymied. “I have to take those pills with food,” Daniel said. “And I refuse to eat lunch while lying on my belly.”

Fighting with him seemed counterproductive, so Jack ordered room service while Teal’c tried to reason with the stubborn archeologist. It was actually kind of funny to listen to. Teal’c would present a compelling reason why Daniel should lie flat and Daniel, making no attempt to refute Teal’c’s logic, simply refused.

Just as Jack was about to run downstairs and fetch the damned meal himself, the food was delivered. Daniel ate quickly, took his pills and lay down. “Okay, you guys go back to the museum. There’s no reason why this should spoil your day.”

“Daniel, we’re not just going to leave you here,” Jack said.

“Why not? I’m going to fall asleep in the next five minutes, so it’s not like I need company.”

“I just -- it’s not --”

Daniel propped himself up on his elbows. “Look, we’re in a Holiday Inn in Denver, Colorado. It’s not like I’m going to be attacked in my hotel room. Go out!”

Teal’c walked over and gently pushed Daniel back down to a prone position. “Do not sit up, DanielJackson, it is not good for your injury. We will go next door to discuss our plans.”

Then Teal’c turned to Jack and gestured that he precede him out of the room, clearly unwilling to take no for an answer. They went next door, leaving Daniel alone, and Teal’c said, “I think we should do as he says and leave him be, at least for a while.”

“Long enough for him to fall asleep,” Jack said, crossing his arms. “Then I’m going in there to keep an eye on him.”

“Sir, I think they’re both right,” Carter said. “Daniel will be fine. I don’t think we should be gone long, but . . .”

“Why don’t you two go out?” Jack suggested. “I’ll stick it out here, and you two can go somewhere and have some fun.”

“Sir, why are you being so mother hennish about Daniel?” Carter asked. “I mean, he’s been hurt much worse than this in the past without you getting so . . .”

“So what, Major?” Jack asked.

“What I’m trying to say, sir, is that Daniel hates it when we get so . . .”

Jack blinked at her. It wasn’t like Sam to have so much difficulty finishing sentences. “So what?” he asked again.

“I believe that Major Carter is suggesting that DanielJackson becomes upset when we cosset him too much.” Jack wanted to protest that he wasn’t cosseting him, but he knew that the claim would be unconvincing because he didn’t believe it himself. “And Major Carter, Colonel O’Neill is feeling guilty for what happened to DanielJackson.”

“Oh, like you’re not,” Jack growled. He didn’t really want to hear it said aloud.

“I never said I was not,” Teal’c replied.

“Besides, there are other reasons that I don’t feel at liberty to explain,” Jack said. “I just really don’t think Daniel needs to be alone right now. And probably not for the foreseeable future, to be completely honest.”

Carter looked at him for several minutes, then she said, “Sir, I’m worried. Shouldn’t Daniel talk to someone? I don’t understand why Dr. Fraiser hasn’t insisted that Daniel see Dr. McKenzie or some other therapist.”

Jack walked over to the window and looked out for a long moment, thinking dark, lonely thoughts. “Daniel doesn’t want to talk to anyone about it, particularly not McKenzie or Dr. Fraiser,” he said.

“Oh, right,” Sam said.

This wasn’t much of a view. A bit of parking lot, a couple of restaurants on the next block, an office building. Jack turned around. “And this has happened to me,” he said, meeting Sam’s eyes. “So I know some of how Daniel feels.”

Carter stared at him. “You’ve been . . . when, sir?”

“Details don’t matter, Carter,” Jack said. “It was long before I got this command. But I have some background with this, and both Hammond and Fraiser know it.” He sighed. “Daniel’s doing okay, but he’s not ready to be alone right now. You can take my word on that.”

“But he was alone for a while the other day, when we went shopping,” Carter said. “I thought -- I mean, he practically demanded it.”

Jack nodded. “He did. But he wasn’t okay. He put on a good show, but he wasn’t okay.”

“He’s not afraid of something happening again, is he?” Carter asked.

Jack shook his head, but his attention was on Teal’c who looked completely and totally stunned. “No, Carter, it’s got to do with not wanting to be alone with his thoughts. Could you . . . um . . .”

She looked at him, looked at Teal’c, and then said, “I think we need some ice.” With a few steps, she was out of the room and Jack turned to Teal’c.

“What’s up, buddy?”

“I do not understand, O’Neill. You have been . . . raped?” He seemed uncomfortable with the word. Hell, Jack wasn’t comfortable with the word.

He shrugged. “Yes, I have.”

“But . . . how do you live with such shame?”

Feeling rather as if the floor had dropped six inches without warning him, Jack stared at the Jaffa. “I don’t understand. I thought we had agreed that Daniel was not shamed by this happening to him.”

“DanielJackson is not,” Teal’c said. “He is not a warrior, but . . .” Teal’c seemed overwhelmed and uncertain, both of which were unusual emotions to see on the Jaffa’s face.

“But I am,” Jack finished for him when it became clear that Teal’c was stuck. “And that makes a difference?”

“Among Jaffa, if one is violated in that way, it is a cause for deep shame. A Jaffa who has experienced it must atone by committing ritual suicide.”

“So, you think I should be dead now?” Jack asked. Teal’c’s eyes widened. “You want to tell me the ritual? I suppose I could do it now. I mean, it’s a few years late, but better late than never, right?”

“No,” Teal’c said. “I do not wish you dead, O’Neill. I --”

“What, Teal’c? What?”

“I do not know how to understand this. It is beyond -- I do not --”

Jack let out an explosive sigh. “For crying out loud! And naturally the guy who’s so good at explaining stuff like this is asleep, and we don’t want to talk to him about it for fear of upsetting him.” He walked over and thumped down onto one of the beds. “Look, Teal’c, here the only person who’s blamed for rape is the person who does it. The victim bears no responsibility.”

“I have seen indications that it is otherwise, on your television,” Teal’c said.

“Well, there are stupid people everywhere, I guess,” Jack said. “The point is, Teal’c, that some guys ambushed me when I was in prison and . . . it happened. I had no way to stop it, no possibility of escape. It took me a long time to accept that, but I did and I got past it.” Teal’c was gazing at him with an intense expression. “And if something of the sort happens to you, you are damned well forbidden to commit ritual suicide!”

“But, O’Neill, it is --”

“Hang on a minute, Teal’c. Answer me one question before you finish that thought.” Teal’c paused, waiting. “Who the hell is this ‘ritual suicide’ devoted to?”

“The god of the . . .” Teal’c’s eyes grew hard suddenly. “The false god of the Jaffa so afflicted.”

“So you’re supposed to kill yourself in the name of Apophis if someone rapes you. That makes a hell of a lot of sense. Who do you suppose came up with this brilliant idea?”

“You are right, O’Neill,” Teal’c said, a new thoughtfulness coming over his features. “It is yet another one of the lies the false gods have given us.”

“Good. That’s settled, then,” Jack said. “Can I call Carter back in here?” he asked. Teal’c nodded and Jack went to the door. Sam was leaning against the wall, looking bored. She came back in and Jack said, “Now, the two of you, go out somewhere and have a little fun. I’m going back in with Daniel, he’s got to be asleep by now, and the last thing he needs is for a maid to wander in there and startle him half to death.”

Without waiting for them to say anything else, he left and let himself into the room he shared with Daniel as quietly as possible. He’d packed himself a couple of books just for moments like this, so he dug one out of his suitcase, kicked back on the bed and started reading.

Hours passed, and he started to get a little hungry. He was just thinking about calling down for room service again when Daniel started twitching on the bed and muttering incoherently. Dropping the book to the side, Jack got off his bed and crossed to Daniel’s side quickly. He sat down beside him and put a hand gently on his shoulder. “Daniel?”

“No, no no nononono!” The word wasn’t loud, but it was unmistakable and came out with such rapidity that the iterations began to slur together. He was writhing, which couldn’t be good for the tear on his back.

Jack bent down and spoke by the other man’s ear. “Daniel, it’s okay. Wake up.”

There was a jolt in Daniel’s body, and then a sudden stillness. Finally, he said, “Jack?”

“Yes, it’s me, Daniel.”

“I was dreaming, wasn’t I?”

“Not sure I’d call it a dream, more like a nightmare. Do you want to talk about it?”

Daniel shook his head. “Nothing to talk about, he said, his voice muffled by the pillow. “I don’t remember anything but amorphous horror.”

“My instinct is to rub your back, but that seems like a bad notion just now.”

There was an odd trembling under his hand on Daniel’s shoulder, and then the archeologist said, “Don’t make me laugh. It hurts.”

“Sorry, Daniel. You okay now?”

“Actually, I’ve got to . . . can you help me up?”

Jack helped Daniel to his feet and watched him disappear into the bathroom. “If you need any help --” he started to say, but Daniel slammed the door firmly behind him. Knowing when he wasn’t wanted, Jack went back to sit down on his bed again, trying to find the place where he’d left off in his book.

Daniel emerged a few minutes later looking very stiff and unhappy. “I’d like to be better now,” he said. “Do you think you can manage that?”

“If I could, I would. Do you need help getting back on the bed again?”

Daniel shook his head, but then he stopped at the edge of the bed, looking down. Jack stayed where he was, though he wasn’t sure that was the right choice. Daniel might not ask for help when he needed it if he was feeling . . . His thoughts broke off as Daniel spoke. “Um . . . Jack, I think I do . . . um . . . need a little help.”

Jack was at his side instantly, helping him to lower himself onto the bed. “Easy now, Daniel, careful.”

“I hate this,” Daniel grated out.

“I know,” Jack said. “It will pass.”

Daniel just grunted as he settled down again. Then, after a moment, when Jack had settled again, Daniel said, “Why didn’t you go out with the others?”

“I didn’t want to leave you alone, for fear of just exactly what did happen. If I’d left you in that dream you might have torn that open again, and . . . besides, you needed help to get to the bathroom.”

“I appreciate the help, Jack, I do, but I’m not broken.”

“I know you’re not. Now go back to sleep.”

Silence from the other bed suggested that Daniel had taken his advice.

* * *

When Daniel woke up there was an aching tenderness in the skin of his back, but it no longer felt as if someone had ripped a hole in him. He rolled over very gingerly, but though he could feel the skin shifting with his movement. There was no sense of tearing, and the pain didn’t increase significantly.

“Whoa, there, Daniel,” Jack said. “Whatcha doing?”

“Sitting up,” Daniel said, suiting actions to words. “Believe me, I’m being careful.” Jack moved swiftly up beside him and started peeling the tape off gently. Daniel glanced over towards the clock to see what time it was and stared. Two a.m.

“I hope cold pizza works for you,” Jack said. “Room service closes down at midnight.”

Aware suddenly that he was ravenous, Daniel said, “Cold pizza would be great. Why did you let me sleep so long?”

Jack shrugged. “I called Fraiser around eight to see what she thought. You’d been asleep close to seven hours at that point so I wasn’t sure what I should do. She said if you were still sleeping that there was probably a reason and that I should try to wake you around ten.”

His eyes going back to the clock and the unbelievable time it showed, Daniel said, “Did you?”

“Yup,” Jack said. There was a mirror on the wall, and Daniel stared at Jack’s image in it. The man was still carefully removing the bandage which Teal’c had taped quite thoroughly to his skin. “You weren’t real receptive, so I called the doc again and she told me to let you sleep yourself out.” From the expression on Jack’s face, Daniel guessed that there might have been a few choice words added into the comments.

“But that’s more than twelve hours,” Daniel protested.

Jack met his eyes in the mirror. “How do you feel?” he asked.

“Okay. A little fuzzy.” Daniel shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. “Not really like I’ve been asleep for too long, though, I guess.”

“This looks better,” Jack said approvingly. Daniel craned his neck, but he couldn’t see anything. “It’s all closed up, there’s just a fine red line where the tear was. Skin must be new enough to knit together quickly.”

Giving up the useless attempt to see his own back, Daniel said, “Where’s the pizza?” Jack gave him the box and a paper plate and Daniel started munching on pepperoni pizza. “You look exhausted, Jack. Have you been awake all this time?”

Jack nodded. “Well, now that you’re awake and not liable to damage yourself by moving wrong, I’m going to shower and go to bed.”

“Can you sleep with the light on?” Daniel asked, leaning down and pulling out one of his books.

“I can sleep just about anywhere, Daniel,” Jack said. “For instance, if I don’t come out in twenty minutes you’d better come in and check if I’ve drowned.”

Daniel laughed, but he kept an eye on the clock nevertheless. He was just thinking he’d better go and check when Jack emerged, hair still dripping, eyes forbidding speech. Daniel chuckled softly and returned to his book as Jack climbed into bed and rolled over.


	27. Chapter 27

After four days in Denver and three spent just getting odds and ends of normal life squared away, Daniel felt very rested and relaxed as he sat on the table in the infirmary. Janet’s hands were cool and gentle on his back as she checked out the fading burns. “So, how was the rest of your vacation?” she asked. “I haven’t heard a peep out of any of you, not even Sam, since Teal’c called to tell me that your back was better.”

Daniel grinned. “It was great,” he said. “You haven’t lived till you’ve gone to an amusement part with Jack. He’s a crazy man on rides.”

“An amusement park?” Janet asked. “You folks really did go out and have fun. Here I was all prepared to hear about museums and libraries.”

Daniel shrugged. “Oh, there were plenty of museums, but no libraries. Sam and I cruised some used bookstores on Thursday while Jack and Teal’c went to a car show of some kind. I think there were a lot of historical vehicles, because they came back arguing the merits of the Model T and assembly line manufacture.”

“So, how did Teal’c like roller coasters?”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “I think he had fun, but it was hard to tell. His broad grin is so much the same as his neutral expression.”

Janet chuckled. “True enough, though his frown . . .”

“Brrrr,” Daniel said, mock-shuddering, and Janet laughed out loud.

“Well, your back his healing fine. I can’t even see any evidence of that tear anymore.”

“There’s no pain at all,” Daniel offered. “Not anywhere. So, am I fit for duty?”

Janet came around in front of him, eyes gone serious again. “There are other concerns than the simple physical healing, Daniel,” she said. “Give it a couple of days and then we’ll see.”

Daniel hid his disappointment and dismay. “I meant working in my office, Janet,” he said with at least partial truth. He hadn’t expected to be released for off world duty, but ‘other concerns . . .’ It sounded ominous.

She raised an eyebrow, and Daniel was sure she saw right through him. Nevertheless, she responded only to the words he spoke aloud. “Well, I think working in your office would be fine,” she said. “Are you still tiring quickly?”

“Nope,” Daniel said.

“Then I’ll sign off on you for regular planetside duty.”

“Thanks, Janet,” he said.

She bit her lip and looked down for a moment, then shrugged and looked up again, speaking tentatively. “Now, I’m just asking for a yes or no answer, no details. Have you talked to Colonel O’Neill at all about what happened?”

Daniel took in a deep breath. “Some,” he said.

“Are you getting enough help, would you say?” she asked. He nodded, not meeting her eyes. Jack and he hadn’t talked in days, but he hadn’t felt the need. Jack had made a couple of forays, but Daniel had turned the subject and his commander hadn’t pressed. Once again, he was certain that she could see what he wasn’t saying, but she only addressed his overt response. “Okay, then,” she said, “run along and get back to work. SG-11 brought back something that may have medical significance, but no one’s absolutely sure what it says.”

Daniel grinned at her. “I’ll make it a priority, Janet,” he said.

“See that you do, Dr. Jackson,” she replied, winking, then left so he could get dressed again. When the door closed, he sighed and hopped off the table. Off world duty would probably have to wait until she’d done her final examination next week in any case. He just hoped no one would insist on a psych evaluation. He wasn’t altogether sure he’d pass one of those when there wasn’t anything traumatic on his mind, much less when there was.

The infirmary was empty of patients for once, so he waved at Janet and the nurses and went back out into the base. As ordered, the infirmary had been his first stop, so he hadn’t even been to his office yet. Jack had gone straight to work on some disciplinary issues, Sam was back on the dialing computer, and Daniel wasn’t altogether sure where Teal’c had disappeared off to. The Jaffa spent a lot of his time in weapons training with the units that were currently on base.

Ignoring the sideways looks he was getting as he walked through the halls, Daniel went to his office and shot off e-mails to Sam and Jack, letting them know what Janet’s conclusions were. He thought that Jack would quite likely be annoyed, though not surprised. Jack was so excited about providing Daniel with the opportunity to go that cache, but that would have to wait until Janet cleared him.

In his office, Daniel found a full carafe of coffee and a note from Emily Saunders explaining that she had spoken to her staff and would keep them out of his hair, but that more coffee would be delivered at periodic intervals if so required.

Daniel jotted a quick message back explaining that he was now fully able to fetch his own coffee, but that he appreciated the concern.

There was a small stack of items on the table beyond the carafe, little packages of gourmet coffee, a couple of fancy chocolate bars, a pile of cards. He started pulling the cards out of their envelopes and was mildly startled to see just how many people had sent him Get Well wishes. He read through them, contemplating just how much this life meant to him these days.

Then he attacked his high priority inbox. The paperwork for the potential medical artifact was on top, and he scanned the inscriptions quickly to see if it would be a matter of simple translation. As he’d expected, though, it wasn’t, so he put it aside to sort through the other items.

When he’d been gone for a while, he made a practice of going through both inboxes thoroughly, because people were always putting low priority items in his high priority box and vice versa. It was as if they couldn’t recognize the difference. This was no problem while he was in the office daily, because he rarely let either basket get very full. When he’d been gone a week, though, things tended to pile up.

He sent several things on to Robert Rothman to translate -- things that should have been sent to him in the first place -- and tossed a couple that were all numbers into his science box for special attention. Then he focused on separating out garden variety grocery list level stuff from real life or death priority items.

He stopped, staring at a memo that read, “Foreign contractor Nyan must be tested in order to determine his pay level and job classification.” Damn! He felt a stab of guilt as he realized that he’d completely forgotten about the Bedrosian archeologist. He put in a call to Janet who told him that the man had been released just the day before to the authority of Robert Rothman, who was giving him basic orientation to the facility and language help.

Daniel relaxed a little. Robert would see Nyan properly situated, and Daniel could take a little time to work out just how to test the alien archeologist to discover his appropriate ‘pay level and job classification.’

Once everything was properly sorted and in the right baskets, Daniel settled down to do Janet’s translation for her. Items with medical potential were always a very high priority, after all, and he was allowed some discretion.

* * *

Jack nodded with satisfaction as he closed the last of the seven files that had been piled on his desk. He’d been forced to deal with some stupid disciplinary matters -- feeling very like a vice principle at a middle school -- but then he’d been able to settle in and read through the files on the newest additions to the SGC.

Thankfully, this was not another group of children. The youngest of this crew was twenty-seven. No twenty-year-olds who genuinely believed in their own immortality in this lot. Jack was glad to see that they were trying to fill in the middle ranks a bit more again.

There was a light knocking on his open door and he looked up. It was MSgt. Saunders, the woman who was in charge of the commissary. Jack gestured her inside and she came inside. “Do you mind if I shut the door, sir?”

“Of course not,” Jack replied, feeling his gut tighten. She looked very serious, and a request to shut his door from an NCO almost always meant that there was a complaint about an officer. “How can I help you, Saunders?”

“I need to file a grievance regarding Lt. Jorgenson,” she said, confirming his suspicions. “But I want you to understand, sir, that it’s not so much because of what was said to me, but because of what it implies about the way the lieutenant views someone else at the facility.”

“Very well, Sgt., I’ll take that into account.”

Saunders took a deep breath. “This morning, when I knew that Dr. Jackson had returned from vacation, I took a carafe of coffee up to him with a note saying that I would send more if he needed me to. I was concerned because he was so unwell when he was last here.” Jack nodded, and felt a sinking feeling in his gut. This had something to do with Daniel? “He wrote a note back saying that he didn’t need the assistance. I’m not sure how it wound up being delivered by Lt. Jorgenson, but it did. He handed it to me and said, ‘I hadn’t really placed you as a fag hag, Saunders.’”

“What?” The word was out before he could stop it, and he realized that his anger was out of place in the circumstance. Saunders didn’t seem at all fazed by it, however.

“He said he hadn’t thought I was a ‘fag hag.’ I asked him what he meant, and he told me that I was of the wrong gender to appeal to Dr. Jackson. I didn’t know what to say to that, which he seemed to take as a need for further explanation.” Jack nodded, and began taking notes as a good officer should under the circumstances. “He said that Dr. Jackson prefers the sausage to the roll, and followed that up with a number of other euphemisms for gay sex. I told him that I thought he was mistaken, and that I didn’t think it was an appropriate topic of conversation.”

“What did he say then?” Jack asked, managing to keep his tone under control this time.

“That I had better wise up and not waste my time on someone who --” She broke off. “His remarks got somewhat obscene there, sir, and related to the recent incident. I did not respond at that point, since my previous attempt merely led him to continue. When he got no rise out of me, he dropped the note on my desk and left.” Jack nodded and kept taking notes. “What I gathered, sir, was that Lt. Jorgenson views the recent events as confirmation of his suspicions regarding Dr. Jackson.”

“Is there anything else that you feel needs to be added to this report, Saunders?” Jack asked. She looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head. “I will see that the matter is dealt with. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.”

“Thank you, sir,” Saunders said, saluting. He returned her salute and then she went out, leaving Jack with a gut full of fury and nothing he could do about it. He stared at his notes for a moment, then bent to them, carefully expanding them to cover all of what MSgt. Saunders had said. Then he picked up the phone and dialed General Hammond’s office.

About an hour later he left the general’s office having passed the buck and avoided the conflict of interests that had been staring him in the face. From there, Jack went to the gym. Changing into sweats, he put on his boxing gloves and took some of his ire out on a punching bag. To his relief and pleasure, Hammond’s anger had rivaled his own when he’d read Saunders’ report. However, since Hammond wasn’t Daniel’s direct superior, he could legitimately discipline Jorgenson for his rude and boorish behavior.

Since Jack wanted to punch him in the face, that was probably a good thing. He wondered if the jackass would have the balls to own up to what he’d said or if he would try to make out that Saunders had made it all up. Jack always loved it when some moron pulled that one. There wasn’t much of the base that wasn’t under constant surveillance, and he’d already put in an order to pull that morning’s tapes from Saunders’ office.

Finally, he managed to get himself a little better under control, and he returned to his office to start working on a specific training program for his seven victims.


	28. Chapter 28

Daniel worked straight through until he heard a loud throat-clearing in the doorway behind him. Giving a start, he turned to see Jack looking at him ironically. “I’ve been standing here for almost five minutes,” the colonel said. “What’s so absorbing?”

Giving in to an impish impulse, Daniel said, “A possible cure for cancer, but I won’t be sure until I get more of the text translated.”

“Oh, is that all?” Jack said. “Well, it’s time for good archeologists to join their commanders for lunch.” Daniel glanced back down at what he was working on and sighed. Jack wouldn’t take ‘later’ for an answer. He never would when he was in this mood.

They went down to the commissary where they got their food and settled down at a table. Jack started to ask him what he was really working on, but before he got more than a couple of words out, Captain Griff stopped. “How are you, Jackson?” he asked.

“I’m good,” Daniel said. “You?”

“Can’t complain,” Griff said. “Glad to see you back. See you around.”

Daniel nodded and watched him walk off. Then he turned to Jack. “You were saying?”

“What is that thing you’re --”

“Dr. Jackson, I’m glad to see you looking better. You looked so wrung out last week . . .” This was a slightly more voluble Major Travis, who was only the second in a long string of people who were seizing on Daniel’s presence in the commissary to greet him and welcome him back after his long absence. It began to get quite embarrassing, especially since Jack had been gone just as long, yet nobody was expressing happiness at seeing him returned.

When he’d finished eating, Daniel said, “I’ve got to get back to work.” Instead of just nodding like he usually would, Jack got up with him and tossed his napkin down. They walked out into the halls and back to Daniel’s office. When they got there, Daniel reached out and grabbed a chocolate bar and tossed it to his friend. “Why the escort?” he asked.

“What escort?” Jack asked, wandering over and looking at the pile of Get Well cards.

Daniel rolled his eyes and pulled himself up onto his stool. “You’d think they didn’t expect me to come back,” he said, thinking back on all the people who’d stopped to talk during lunch.

Jack shrugged. “It happens. A lot of soldiers, after something like that, wind up discharged and they don’t come back.”

“Why discharged?” Daniel asked.

“They can’t handle it, they fall apart,” Jack said soberly. Then the colonel grinned. “They don’t have me to help hold the seams together.”

Daniel grinned back. “Funny, I don’t recall any seams coming apart.”

“No, that’s true,” Jack said thoughtfully. “Bulging a little, but not actually splitting.”

Daniel snorted. “Yeah, right. Don’t you have work to do?”

“Oh, a few torture sessions to set up. The general has decided that he wants me to do a more complete orientation on the newest set of recruits.”

“Oh God,” Daniel said feelingly. “You’re saddled with a passel of twenty-year-old kids?”

“Nope,” Jack said. “These are your peers for the most part. Youngest is twenty-seven, oldest is thirty-nine, ranging in rank from captain to lieutenant colonel.”

“What do you mean, my peers?” Daniel asked suspiciously, looking for the dig.

“I mean they’re all about your age,” Jack said, raising an eyebrow. “What else could I mean?” Daniel just shrugged. “It’ll be nice to be working with grown-ups for a change.” Daniel was still looking for the potential insult in that remark when Jack said, “I’d better be going. I gotta say, I prefer my inboxes to yours. They get piled just as high, but at least I can read it all.”

Daniel laughed as Jack left, then returned to his medical inscriptions.

* * *

Jack was glad that Daniel hadn’t noticed how much everyone was watching him. He was already self conscious about what had happened, he really didn’t need to notice that the commissary went quiet when he entered and people stared at him. Stopping in his office, he put in a couple of calls and located Feretti who was, oddly enough, in his own office.

Feretti looked up as he entered the room, and he smiled. “Glad to have you back, Colonel,” he said. “Too many of your duties get shunted to me when you’re gone.” Jack nodded, shut the door and sat down. Feretti’s mood shifted instantly. “What’s wrong, sir?”

Jack quickly outlined the incident with Jorgenson, and Feretti let out a low whistle. “Damn. I hadn’t heard anything like that, but people with that attitude probably wouldn’t say much to me.”

“What have you heard? What are people saying? And how did it come up in the first place?”

Feretti grimaced. “It was in the showers after the mission to retrieve the reactor. Some of the guys from SG-6 were there and one of them mentioned something about rape.” Feretti shook his head. “It was at one of those moments, you know, where everything goes silent for whatever reason, so Dempsey’s comment, well, it was a lot more noticeable than it might have been otherwise.”

“Bad timing.”

Feretti nodded. “So Travis asked what he was talking about, and they said that they’d been warned that rape was a possible method of torture they could face on P2X-416. Nobody said much to that, but after a couple of minutes, somebody asked where all of you were. SG-1, I mean. Teal’c was in iso because his symbiote got hit, you and Carter were released and Dr. Jackson was still in the infirmary with some kind of unspecified injuries.”

“You discussed all of this?” Jack looked down at his clenched fists. “In the showers, some large group of you discussed that Daniel was --”

“Not in so many words, Jack,” Lou protested. “No one ever even mentioned Dr. Jackson’s name, but it was obvious. We all knew that Teal’c had never been captured, and that you and Major Carter were released from the infirmary. Besides, the teams that went were all guys, so everyone knew Hammond had to suspect that a guy could be attacked. Anyone could put two and two together in that situation, and more than a couple of us did, I guess.”

“And more than a couple of you talked,” Jack growled.

Feretti, looking disgusted, nodded again. “I gotta say, Jack, I did not appreciate getting to break unexpected, unpleasant news to two members of your team. It was distinctly lacking in fun.”

“I can imagine,” Jack said grimly. This had not been his best couple of weeks. “I’m sorry about Teal’c.”

Feretti shrugged. “And honestly, Jack, do you really think I would have put up with some kind of prurient conversation about Daniel? Give me a little credit, buddy.”

“Sorry, Lou,” Jack said.

“Since the day you guys all left and went on vacation, I’ve been reassuring folks that Daniel was fine, that he was coming back, and hoping I was right. Was I right?”

Jack raised an eyebrow at his old friend and former subordinate. “He’s here on base, Lou. What are you talking about?”

“There’s back and there’s back, Jack,” Feretti said, giving him a sober look. “I just . . . I know for a fact that if Daniel never wanted to go through that gate again, there’s a lot of people here who would completely understand.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem, Lou,” Jack said, grinning. “I think the only question in Daniel’s mind right now is how soon Fraiser’s going to let him go. We’ve even got a mission lined up already.”

“Not letting the grass grow under your feet, are you, Jack?” Lou asked, chuckling. “Well, that’s a real relief.”

“What, that Daniel’s not giving up field work?”

“Hell yes,” Feretti said with such vehemence that Jack was a little surprised. “Everyone who’s read the reports of your missions knows just how vital Dr. Jackson is to our mission here. He’d make a significant contribution even if he never went through the gate again, but even without real military training, he’s a better field man than half the guys they send us.”

“Not so good at following orders,” Jack commented, more to see how Feretti responded than because he disagreed with anything had said.

“Daniel is our conscience,” Lou said. “And as such, he can’t always follow orders.”

With this assessment still ringing in his ears, Jack returned to his own office. He couldn’t make up his mind whether he should share Lou’s words with Daniel. They might please him, but they’d definitely embarrass him. Further, Jack could just see Daniel killing himself trying to live up to them. Finally, reflecting that he didn’t have Lou’s permission to tell Daniel what he’d said, and that he didn’t want the archeologist throwing those words in his face the next time they had a disagreement on a mission, he opted to keep it to himself.

* * *

The rest of Daniel’s first day back passed in a haze of translation. He finished the medical artifact and passed it on to Janet. While not a cure for cancer, it had some fairly significant potential applications. He knew that not from what it said but from Janet’s reaction. She scanned the translation, asked twice if he was sure it was accurate, and then started babbling nonsense to Dr. Warner, who babbled it right back. He left them in their throes of delight and went back to his office, stopping along the way to accept welcome homes from six or seven different people.

Some of them skirted around the edges of a topic he most definitely didn’t want to address, but there didn’t seem to be anything to do but smile politely and respond to their greetings. He couldn’t see sending out a memo that told everyone to leave him the hell alone, even though by the fourth or fifth person he was ready to scream it to the world.

Fortunately, the message seemed to have gotten out that people shouldn’t trouble him in his office, so he only had to put up with comments from people who had actual business with him. Since most of them were friends, it was easier to hint to them that he was fine and didn’t want excessive greetings. He really wished more of them could be like Captain Griff, short, to the point and not gushing with sympathy for ‘his ordeal.’ That was directly from the lips of Major Henessey, who was chief of the general administrative staff.

Why couldn’t people understand that comments like that only served to lengthen ‘his ordeal’?

He went back to work and translated two smaller texts, clearly military missives, coded them urgent, and sent them down to General Hammond’s office. That done, he turned back to the stack, but before he had decided which item to work on next, there was a tapping on his door. He turned to find Jack gazing at him. “Yes?”

“Seven-thirty,” the colonel said. Daniel stared at him, baffled.

When it became clear that Jack wasn’t going to explain further, Daniel said, “Seven-thirty?”

Jack turned his eyes towards the clock and Daniel looked up. “See, Daniel, the little hand is midway between the seven and the eight and the big hand is just past the six. Seven-thirty.”

Daniel bit his lip. “You think it’s time to go home, don’t you?”

“Fraiser checked the logs when she went today, around six fifteen. She called me and told me that if you weren’t out of here by seven-thirty, I was to come in here and carry you out.”

Abruptly, as Jack brought the time to his attention, exhaustion washed over Daniel, leaving him slightly dizzy. “Damn it!” he growled.

“What?”

Daniel made no verbal reply, but a yawn nearly split his head in half.

“Ahh,” Jack said in tones of enlightenment. “You didn’t know you were tired yet, did you?”

“Jerk,” Daniel muttered, slipping off his stool. “Traitor. You’d probably do what she told you, too, wouldn’t you?”

“Carry you out?” Jack shook his head. “I don’t think so. You’re a little heavy for my knees. I might get Teal’c to do it though.”

“Charming.”

“I’ve got take out on order already, Chinese, so we’d better get a move on so it doesn’t get cold and soggy.”

“Right, Jack.” Daniel grabbed his jacket and they made their way down to the locker rooms to change into civvies. “That makes perfect sense.”

“I thought so,” Jack said, grinning. “Come on, Dannyboy,” he said. “Let’s head home and find something slothful to do.”

Rolling his eyes, Daniel closed his door behind them, then followed Jack out to the truck. They stopped by the Chinese place Jack favored and headed back to Jack’s house. Daniel had gotten more of his things from his apartment over the last couple of days since it had become clear that it would be a while before he went home to stay.

He and Jack sat at the coffee table to eat while watching _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance._ He hadn’t even finished eating before he started yawning again. “I used to have more endurance than this,” Daniel groaned.

“The warranty expires at thirty, Dannyboy,” Jack said.

“That’s reassuring,” Daniel muttered. “I’m going to bed. I’m not getting much out of the movie, and the little I am getting suggests that I’d rather watch it while fully conscious.”

Jack gave him a grin. “Good night, Daniel. See, if I hadn’t made you leave, you’d be falling asleep with your face pressed against stone tablets by now.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Paper reproductions of stone tablets, maybe. I don’t usually translate directly from the artifact, Jack.”

“Go to bed, Daniel,” Jack said.

Laughing lightly, he climbed the stairs and went to bed.

* * *

Jack shut off the movie, figuring he’d better save it for another day, and picked up after their meal. He got a few things ready for dinner the next night, and prepped the ingredients for breakfast omelets in the morning. When everything was done, he climbed the stairs himself. It was hard to hear what might be going on in the bedrooms from downstairs, so he didn’t think he should be too far away.

This feeling was confirmed as he passed Daniel’s bedroom to hear the man muttering in his sleep. The words were incomprehensible, but the tone was not. He pushed the door open and went in. “Daniel?”

“NO!” The archeologist sat bolt upright as he screamed out the word.

Jack sat down on the bed behind his friend and pulled him into his arms despite the momentary stiff resistance Daniel displayed. “It’s okay, Daniel, you’re safe.”

Abruptly all the tension went out of Daniel’s body and he relaxed into Jack’s embrace as his shoulders started to shake with sobs. Jack held him, murmuring reassurances, until Daniel pulled away and started scrubbing at his face with the heels of his hands.

“Damn it!” he growled. “Sorry, Jack, I don’t know why I keep --”

“Stop apologizing, Daniel,” Jack said.

“At least I didn’t wake you up this time.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Teal’c,” Daniel said, a catch in his voice. Jack waited. “I dreamed that Rigar caught Teal’c and was vivisecting him in front of me.”

“Oh God,” Jack muttered, not liking the vision this gave him.

“And I’ve seen enough guts spilled over the last few years to have fairly graphic images,” Daniel said in a colorless voice.

Jack shuddered. This gentle, bookish man had been through hell over the past three years, and Jack hadn’t been much help to him. “I’m sorry, Daniel, I wish --”

“Don’t you start apologizing,” Daniel said. “First, you did everything you could to get Rigar focused on you. Second, I knew the nature of this job when I started. Third, I am not, and never was, the sweet innocent boy the group of you keep picturing in your head.”

“Sure you are,” Jack protested.

“Jack, I’ve read the plays of Seneca in their original Latin!”

“What do I care of you’ve read scenic plays?” Jack demanded.

“Jaaack!”

“What?”

“The plays of Seneca,” Daniel repeated. Jack just gazed at him blankly. For once this wasn’t a ‘dumb colonel’ act, as Daniel called them. He had no idea who this Seneca guy was. “Seneca wrote plays in the late Roman period, basically all sex and violence.”

Jack tilted his head, intrigued. “Really? I mean, I knew all about that Culligan guy, but I never heard anything about plays.”

Daniel’s brows knit, then he rolled his eyes in apparent irritation, which made Jack smile internally. “Caligula, Jack, Caligula. It means ‘little boot’ in Latin.”

“Right, him.”

“Look, Jack, Caligula was a scary, perverse and bizarre guy, but some of the later Roman emperors were pretty bad, too. For instance, Emperor Heliogablius had plays performed that included live sex acts and actual murders.”

“Actual murders?” Jack repeated. “You don’t mean . . .”

“I mean if the character died in the play, they brought in a stand in for the actor, usually a condemned prisoner, and killed him,” Daniel said.

“Lovely,” Jack said. “But Daniel, it’s one thing to read about things, it’s quite another to experience them. You may have read about Culligan’s debauchery, but it’s not the same.”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Caligula, Jack. You just seem to think I don’t know what’s possible out there, and it’s not the case. Of course it’s different to experience it, but . . . but really, I know the kinds of things people do to one another.”

Jack shrugged. Daniel didn’t understand. Daniel probably didn’t want to understand. But even though book knowledge was useful, it didn’t prepare a man for what could happen in the field. For example, Jack knew all about prison violence before taking the assignment that wound up with him spending a few months in prison, but knowing that he had a chance of getting raped by his fellow prisoners and actually having it happen were entirely different things.

“I understand your point, Daniel,” Jack said. He could see that the care with which he’d chosen his words wasn’t lost on his friend.

The archeologist looked irritable.  “I should let you get on to bed,” Daniel said. “Sorry I --”

“Quit apologizing!” Jack said and Daniel sat back, looking surprised. “You haven’t done anything wrong, Daniel, and your reactions to this are normal. Nightmares are completely normal.”

“I have nightmares all the time, Jack,” Daniel groused. “It’s just that usually nobody can tell.” Jack stared at him. Daniel seemed to be made uncomfortable by the scrutiny, because he looked away. “I don’t know why I’m suddenly making so much noise in my dreams.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m here to help you, Daniel. You need to talk to me . . . to tell me what’s troubling you.”

Daniel shook his head. “Go to bed, Jack. Or go watch a movie or something. I’m too tired for a heart to heart.”

Jack nodded, grimacing. Too uncomfortable, too worried about giving too much away, too damned private, all of those were more likely than ‘too tired.’ “Good night, Daniel,” he said, and left his friend rolling back over to go to sleep.


	29. Chapter 29

Daniel lay still, eyes closed, trying to get to sleep. Images kept surging in his mind, though, and he didn’t want them to become as clear and vivid -- and full of movement -- as they could become in dreams. Aware that if Jack knew he wasn’t falling asleep, he’d come to try and talk again, Daniel kept still, not moving, trying to take deep, regular breaths, hoping that the semblance of sleep would lead to the real thing.

No luck.

Finally giving up, Daniel rolled over on his back and stared at the ceiling. The room was lit very dimly by lights from the street outside. Jack was making no noise, but that didn’t mean he was asleep. Closing his eyes, Daniel began to breathe slowly, meditatively. Maybe that would bring him sufficient relaxation that sleep would come.

His thoughts kept flying off to Bedrosia. This had been happening a lot over the last few nights. He was fine during the day, but at night he would start thinking . . . and the dreams would come . . . It made getting to sleep -- unless he was utterly exhausted -- an impossibility. During the vacation, getting himself utterly exhausted was easily achieved most of the time, and when he hadn’t managed it -- when the others had gotten too fussy to let him -- he had a solution. Not a solution that he liked, but a solution nevertheless.

Very quietly, Daniel sat up and looked at the clock. Two-twenty-eight a.m. By now, Jack almost had to be asleep. Bending, he pulled out the satchel from under his bed, sliding it very softly on the floor. Flipping the top open, he pulled out the bottle of brandy he’d snuck out of his apartment on their last visit. A couple of quick swallows and he’d be asleep in no time.

He was just unthreading the cap when the light came on, blinding in its sudden brightness.

Jack stood in the doorway, his eyes fixed to the brown bottle in Daniel’s hands. Daniel blinked in the bright light, staring up at Jack. They both stayed motionless for a long moment, then Jack broke the tableau, walking forward and seizing the bottle from Daniel’s unresisting hands.

“No!” He stood above Daniel, glaring down at him. “Been there, done that, don’t want the t-shirt.”

“What?” Daniel asked in complete bafflement.

“T-shirt,” Jack said, raising his eyebrow. “Sales and promotional items? Surely you’re familiar with this concept.”

“That’s not what I meant, Jack.”

Jack put the brandy down on the bureau next to the door and sat down on the bed next to Daniel. “Drinking yourself into oblivion isn’t the answer, Dannyboy.”

“No, it isn’t,” Daniel said, glaring at him. “And have I mentioned how much I hate you calling me that?”

“At least twice. Daniel, don’t tell me you weren’t pulling out the booze to help you sleep.”

“I wasn’t going to. That’s not the same thing as drinking yourself into oblivion.” Jack raised a dubious eyebrow and Daniel rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t planning on getting shit-faced, Jack. Somehow throwing up and wincing at bright lights and loud noises aren’t on my list of fun things.”

Jack pursed his lips. His eyes were somber and very worried. “Daniel, it’s not good to get used to using alcohol as a crutch. If you’re having this much trouble sleeping, you need to go see Fraiser and get some --”

“No!” Daniel stood up and propelled himself across the room, turning back to face Jack, his arms wrapped tightly around his chest. “That would be just great. Let’s put it on my record that I need sedatives. That I can’t handle things on my own.”

“Nobody’s supposed to be able to handle this kind of crap on their own, Daniel! Do you honestly think that if something like this happened to, say, Feretti, everyone would expect him to just suck it up and cope?”

“It’s different, Jack!” Daniel growled. “The rest of you are military. You’re ‘trained.’ You’re all in a ‘club’ that I can’t ever be a part of. Because of that, when I get upset or unwell, it’s seen as proof that a civilian can’t cut it in the program.” He shook his head. “God, Jack, if it had been you with Machelo’s damned critter inside you, or Sam, I honestly think that Janet might have waited a little longer before consigning you to the loony bin. It’s this whole notion the lot of you have that I’m fragile -- that civilians are inherently inferior -- that makes it impossible for me to ask for help in situations like this.”

* * *

Jack stared at Daniel in disbelief. The archeologist was utterly serious, there was no doubting his distress or his sincerity. Daniel had his arms wrapped tightly around his midsection and he was hunched over, standing with his back in the corner of the room. Jack was stunned by this revelation.

“That’s ridiculous, Daniel!” he exclaimed. “I don’t believe for one minute that Fraiser would have done anything differently if it had been me acting nuts. Or Sam. She tested you like crazy and did a ton of stuff to try and avoid that diagnosis.” Daniel shook his head and looked down at the floor. “And I don’t think you’re fragile. Hell, I know for a fact that Dr. Fraiser doesn’t think you’re fragile. There is no reason for you to worry this much.”

“Oh, no?” Daniel glared at him. “You don’t know everything, Jack. I don’t want anything else on my record that even remotely hints at mental instability.”

Jack blinked. He didn’t know everything . . . well, that was undeniably true, but he couldn’t help wondering just what it was he didn’t know that would explain this reaction. “Daniel, I won’t insist that you go to Fraiser with this, but only on condition that we find a solution that doesn’t involve liquor.”

“Fabulous. Do you honestly think I haven’t tried other things?”

“I don’t know, Daniel, but this shouldn’t be early on your list of options,” Jack said. “Look, you were half asleep during the movie earlier, what changed? Did you have any trouble getting to sleep when you came up here in the first place?”

Daniel shook his head. “No, I was already more than half asleep, like you said.”

“So, what changed?”

“That stupid nightmare. Once I woke up I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

Jack nodded. “I can understand that. The image of someone vivisecting Teal’c stuck with me pretty good, too.”

Daniel thumped back into the corner. “Yeah,” he said, but he didn’t meet Jack’s eyes, and Jack got the distinct impression that wasn’t the whole problem.

He stood up and crossed over to his friend. “Come on, sit back down. Let’s talk. I promise, no records will be made.”

After a bit of initial resistance, Daniel came back with him to the bed. “There’s not much to talk about, Jack,” Daniel said.

Jack thought there was a whole hell of a lot to talk about, but he settled for asking, “What keeps you from sleeping?”

Daniel shuddered. “I don’t really want to talk about that,” he said. “I’d rather just get some sleep now.”

“Will you be able to sleep?”

Daniel had dropped his arms away from his torso and was fidgeting with something in his hands. “I don’t know,” he said.

Jack took a good look at what was in Daniel’s hands and then took it from him. It was the top to the brandy bottle. “Daniel, this really isn’t an answer,” Jack said. “For one thing, alcohol just enhances whatever mood you’re in, which doesn’t help.”

“I’m not drinking it for mood alteration,” Daniel said, looking down at his hands. “One or two swallows sends me right off to sleep, that’s all.”

“And how do you feel when you wake up?” Jack asked.

“Fine,” Daniel replied instantly, but Jack sighed.

“You aren’t much of a liar, Daniel,” he said.

“I don’t feel any worse than I would expect to feel after rotten dreams, Jack,” Daniel said, sounding irritated. “And I’d have them either way.”

“Do you feel more rested on nights when you had a drink to get you to sleep or less?”

“I don’t know,” Daniel said, his voice growing louder with frustration and annoyance. “I haven’t been paying that close attention.”

“Well, it has to stop.”

Daniel stiffened. “It’s really none of your business, Jack,” he said coldly.

“It’s not?” Jack asked quietly.

“No, it’s not. I’m an adult, and if I want a drink of brandy before I go to sleep, that’s my business.” He crossed his arms, a distinctly different gesture than the self-hugging he’d done earlier.

Jack sighed. “And this is why you were hiding the bottle under the bed, right?”

“I didn’t want to have this conversation, Jack!” Daniel growled, glaring at him. “And I knew we would if I tried to do it openly.”

There was a long moment of silence, during which Jack tried to figure out what best to say. He had to find some way to show Daniel that this wasn’t going to work as a long term solution. The thought that came to him made him feel like a jerk, but he said it anyway. “So, are you planning to take a bottle with you on our overnight offworld missions?” Jack asked, expecting fury.

Daniel slumped. “I’ll be fine by then,” he said softly. “I won’t need it.” His arms relaxed and slipped further around himself, and Jack put an arm around his friend’s shoulders, pulling him close. He was surprised to find him shaking slightly.

“Are you cold?” he asked. The other man shook his head. “Look, Daniel, I’m not trying to be mean, but --”

“I know you’re not,” Daniel said.

“I just don’t . . . don’t you feel you can talk to me about what’s wrong?”

* * *

Daniel closed his eyes. He knew this was really the key question. Janet and Hammond had come to a compromise that had never been stated outright to him, but he understood it all the same. If he wouldn’t see McKenzie, or someone like him, he had to talk to Jack. They had to know, from his medical records and his mission files, that Jack had been through something like this. Something much worse than this, truth be told.

“I --” Daniel shuddered again and started to pull away from Jack, but when the other man held on, Daniel gave up. Not that he couldn’t get away, any hint of real restraint and Daniel would probably fly across the room, but he didn’t have a good enough reason to yank himself free. “I don’t mind talking to you, Jack. I’m not sure I’m . . .” He trailed off, not sure what he wanted to say.

“What is it you’re not sure you want to tell me?”

Daniel looked down at his hands. “There are two dreams that are really getting to me, Jack, both outcomes of that moment when Rigar almost killed you.” Jack nodded, but he didn’t say anything. Daniel took a deep breath. “In one of them, I give way to the bastard, and he finds Teal’c and starts to torture him, but then he realizes that Teal’c’s a real alien and starts . . .” Daniel’s voice cracked and he broke off.

“It didn’t happen, Daniel,” Jack said. “You didn’t tell Rigar anything.”

Tears started trickling down Daniel’s cheeks, and he pulled away, crossing to the door to turn off the light. “It’s easier to talk in the dark,” he said.

“Fine, come back and sit down.”

“Give me the bottle top,” Daniel said. After a moment, Jack did and Daniel closed the bottle up tightly. It had been making him nuts, sitting there open, and it allowed him to turn his back on Jack for a moment to regain his composure. A hand on his back made him jump with surprise. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” he exclaimed.

“Sorry. Come sit down, Daniel. Or would you rather go down to the living room?”

Daniel shook his head and walked back to the bed, and, shoving the pillows aside, he sat down at the head of it, crossing his legs and leaning back against the wall. Jack walked over and sat down in front of him.

They sat silently for a moment, then Jack cleared his throat. “You said there were two dreams?”

“In the other one, I don’t tell Rigar the truth. He shoots you with the zat again, and you die.” Jack blinked, but he didn’t respond otherwise. “And then he asks again, and I don’t tell him, and he kills Sam.” Daniel shuddered and Jack shoved the pillows off the edge of the bed and shifted so that they were side by side.

“Go on,” he said, sounding as if he knew where this was going.

“And I’m alone with the bastard, in a little cage, with your cooling bodies,” Daniel said, pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes, willing himself to stop crying. “And then sometimes he finds Teal’c anyway, and the dream plays out the same way -- with Teal’c, I mean.”

“And other times?”

“And other times he starts . . .” Daniel shuddered more violently. “He . . .” A sob escaped him and Jack held him tightly. “He attacks me. That’s not always the same, but the gist of it is. The helplessness, the humiliation, the pain . . .” He shook his head. There were times when knowing so much about the ways in which men could torture other men was not helpful at all. His imagination was terrifying. “And you’re dead and Sam’s dead, and Teal’c is God knows where, and it just goes on and on until I wake up.”

Jack didn’t say anything right away, just held him in that comforting embrace. Eventually, he let out a sigh. “I know it doesn’t help, but you’ll have them less often as time goes by.”

“You’re right, it doesn’t help,” Daniel said. “Not now, it doesn’t.”

“So you don’t want to sleep because of the dreams?”

Daniel nodded. “Most often, if I wake up after one, it won’t let me be. I just keep seeing it in my mind, and it won’t let me sleep.” He felt like an idiot, leaning against Jack’s chest, cradled in his friend’s arms, but he also felt protected and reassured.

“So we need to find something to distract your mind from the dreams,” Jack said. “Something that allows you to get to sleep.”

“A swallow or two of brandy does it,” Daniel said. “And as the dreams taper off, I won’t need it anymore. I’ve done it before, Jack, it’s not completely new.”

“Done it before?” Jack repeated, and Daniel realized that he’d said more than he’d intended to. “What do you mean? When?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, shrugging. “The point is that when I needed the help before, the dreams passed and I stopped drinking. This bottle is actually left over from then.”


	30. Chapter 30

Jack thought about the weight of the bottle in his hand. It had felt half-full. “Daniel, when did you need it before?” Daniel shrugged again, and before he could try to brush the question off again, Jack lowered his voice to a growl. “When?”

Daniel stiffened. “After Hathor,” he said. “Hathor really . . .”

“You said you didn’t remember much of anything. Just enough to tell us that the DNA was yours, and not much else.”

The other man shrugged again. “It doesn’t matter, Jack. It’s been two years, and --”

“It matters, Daniel,” Jack said firmly.

“Why? It’s ancient history.”

“Because it happened. Because it affects you,” Jack said, feeling himself start to lose his cool. “Because you lied to us about how much it affected you.”

“I didn’t lie!” Daniel protested. “I didn’t remember very much.”

Jack could see the unspoken part of Daniel’s sentence as if he’d written it in blazing letters in the air. “At first?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Daniel admitted after a moment.

“Then why didn’t you tell us when it started coming back to you?”

“What would the point have been?” Daniel asked. “I don’t respond well to psychologists, I never have. Janet would have insisted on a psych evaluation, you would have wanted me to talk to someone, Sam would have gone all gooey on me, and I have no clue how Teal’c would have reacted, but no doubt he would have driven me nuts, too.” He shook his head. “It was easier just to let it stand. My experience was so different from everyone else’s that no one had any trouble believing that I didn’t remember what happened.”

“Damn it, Daniel!” Jack’s voice was so loud, so angry that Daniel flinched. Jack lowered his voice instantly. “Sorry, but, damn it, we’re your friends. You should have told us.”

“What would have been the point?” Daniel asked again, and Jack didn’t know how to answer him. His friend had suffered through that misery for . . . how long? And had never asked any of them for help. And they’d never seen it, never offered the help he needed.

“How long did you need the brandy for?” Jack asked. “Was that the only bottle?”

Daniel’s shoulders had relaxed again, but now they stiffened. “No,” he said, his voice rigid with unhappiness. “It wasn’t the only bottle.”

Jack closed his eyes. How many times had he failed the man he called his friend? How many hells had Daniel gone through alone because the rest of them were too blind to see past his claims to be fine? How could he persuade Daniel that he should allow other people in a little? What the hell had happened to Daniel in the past that made him so unable or unwilling to trust?

“What happened?” Jack asked.

“You know what happened, Jack,” Daniel said. “The details aren’t important.”

Jack shook his head. “I don’t know, Daniel. The doctors theorized that she must have had some way to sample your genetic tissue that didn’t involve sexual contact because Janet found no signs of force.” Within seconds, Daniel was curled up into a ball on his side on the bed, and Jack didn’t quite know how it had come about. After a second, he said, “I’m guessing they were wrong.”

Daniel didn’t respond and Jack wanted to curse, but now wasn’t the time. Instead he carefully shifted so that he was spooning Daniel’s trembling body and held him close, offering him wordless comfort. Jack had no words for this.

Eventually, Daniel spoke. “You’re kidding. Tell me you’re kidding.”

“I wouldn’t kid about something like this,” Jack said.

“They really think there was no sexual contact?” Daniel’s voice shook with emotion. “Because there were no signs of force. Did she need force to turn you into a Jaffa?”

“Not exactly,” Jack said, surprised. “Though when I tried to pull away, she held on like crazy.”

Daniel was silent, then he pulled away and sat up. “I don’t want everyone to know about this, Jack. I mean, if they think I wasn’t -- if they thought I lied --” He shook his head. “I thought it was obvious that she had . . .”

“I need to you tell me what happened, Danny,” Jack said, sitting up and turning to face him.

“She explained to me, at length, just what she was, that she was a queen Goa’uld and exactly what that meant. Then she told me that I would be . . . privileged . . . to be the one to contribute the code of life, her term for DNA.”

“And then what?” Jack asked when Daniel paused.

“And then . . . and then I made a feeble, failed attempt to stop her and she used that pheromone stuff to break past my resistance . . . and I did what she asked.” He shuddered. “I . . . it took more than one more treatment with that stuff to get through it. I kept coming to myself and trying to stop, but . . .”

“God, Daniel,” Jack murmured.

“She was insatiable. I guess she needed more than . . .” Daniel hunched down. “She said that getting the ‘code of life’ from our species was more pleasurable than most. God, Jack, I couldn’t -- in that moment I began to understand what being with Apophis must be like for Sha’re.”

Jack reached out and squeezed Daniel’s hand. “And you never told anyone?”

“What good would it have done? For one thing, I thought they all knew. It never would have occurred to me that Janet would think . . . that anyone would assume that I hadn’t . . .” Daniel shuddered again. “The very idea of sex made me sick at my stomach for a while, and I felt so incredibly guilty for not being faithful to Sha’re. I finally told myself that if I was being unfaithful, then so was Sha’re, and that snapped me out of it. There’s no way I could ever have blamed her for what Apophis and Amunet did to her.” He dropped his head. “I remember thinking that we could work through our problems together, that we would both have to get past barriers.”

Jack pulled Daniel to his side and hugged him again. “I’m sorry, Daniel. I’m so sorry.”

“What is it about me?” Daniel demanded, pulling away. “You said it’s because I’m ‘nice.’ Jack, why do people always go for me? Hathor wanted to turn me into a harem boy, Shyla wanted a pretty toy that would play nice with her, that bastard in Hadante wanted . . . I don’t want to think about what he wanted. Even Machelo grabbed me, though he didn’t so much want me as my body. There was nothing, not one thing that was sexual about Rigar, but even he talked about me in ways --” Daniel broke off, looking down and Jack ached for him.

“What did Rigar say, Daniel?”

“That I have an earnest quality, and an appearance that would make me seem both appealing and nonthreatening.” He shook his head. “What do I do? What makes me have victim stamped on my forehead? Not that I would wish anything bad on Sam, but you might expect the woman to be the target, but nope, it’s me. Why me? Who the hell did I piss off?”

“Daniel, I don’t know what to say,” Jack said.

“There’s nothing to say,” Daniel growled. “It’s not like it’s new, Jack. When I was a kid I was the target of bullies, when I was a teenager I was scorned by the entire community of adolescents because I was already in college. I mean, you try being sixteen, scrawny and geeky at a university. I just never had quite this . . . thorough . . . an experience with it.”

“You haven’t talked much about your childhood,” Jack said.

Daniel snorted. “Neither have you, Jack. What miseries are there in your past?”

Jack sighed. “There’s a reason I haven’t,” he said. “How do you tell people that you had a happy childhood? I was an only child to older parents who spoiled me rotten but without ruining me, if you take my meaning. In high school I was just marking time till I could get into the Air Force Academy and take up a career. I didn’t have real tragedy until Charlie.”

Daniel stared at him. “Oh. I suppose that would be awkward to talk about,” he said.

“I don’t know if I could have survived what all’s happened to you, Daniel,” Jack said. “And that’s just the stuff I know about.”

“You could have,” Daniel said. “When tragedy hits at an early age, you adapt.”

“Or you fall to pieces,” Jack replied. “Why are you so determined not to have anything in your medical records, Daniel?”

“There are reasons,” Daniel said. “Lots of them. Does it matter?”

“Dr. Fraiser and General Hammond need to know about Hathor,” Jack said, steeling himself for the alarmed, betrayed look he got. “They do, Daniel.”

“She’s dead,” Daniel said. “It’s over with, it’s closed. Why do they need to know?”

“Because it’s part of what’s happened to you in the program, Daniel. It’s a sign that we haven’t paid as close attention as we really ought to have. We need to know how we failed. How we managed to miss the truth of what happened to you, and we need to evaluate if there’s anything we might have missed with regard to other people.”

“How is it a sign that the program has failed?” Daniel asked. “I’m the one who didn’t tell anyone what happened.”

“We have people who are supposed to ask questions, supposed to monitor reactions. That somehow didn’t happen properly with you on this occasion.”

“I met with McKenzie, Jack,” Daniel said. “I still didn’t remember much at that point, so that’s what I told him. I guess he must not have seen the need for another meeting.” He shrugged. “He had dozens of officers and NCOs to meet with over Hathor, so he had a pretty full plate.”

“Yeah, well, you were singled out, so you should have gotten a little more attention than the dozens of airmen who just got controlled. Besides, there should probably be follow up checks on everyone involved in situations like that, to make sure that things haven’t arisen even months later as a problem.”

“Terrific, I’m a test case for how things can get screwed up. Is there something, somewhere that might actually go right for me one of these days?”

Jack decided it was time for a lighter note. “You met me,” he said brightly. Daniel raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth, a decidedly snarky tilt to his head. His eyes glinted in the light from the streetlamp outside. Before he could share whatever snotty remark he was going to make, Jack said, “Agree, Daniel, it’s important for my ego.”

Daniel snorted. “You’re right, that was the defining moment of my life, when I met you.” Jack wasn’t sure what to expect from Daniel’s tone, but he didn’t have to wonder for long. “You took one look at me and said ‘geek.’ That pretty much summed up my life to date.”

“I didn’t say it out loud,” Jack protested.

“Did you have to?” Daniel asked. Jack had no response to that. “It wasn’t precisely subtle. And it’s not like that’s changed any. You still think I’m a geek.”

Jack shrugged. “Yeah, but you’re our geek.”

“I don’t bite the heads off chickens, Jack.”

“I thought we were using it the colloquial not the literal sense,” Jack said. Daniel blinked at him and Jack was pleased to have stumped the linguist. “Besides, you took one look at me and thought ‘brain-dead grunt.’”

“I did not,” Daniel replied, sounding startled.

“You did so,” Jack said.

“Did not.”

“Did so.”

“Not.”

“So.”

“Not, Jack! Do you want to know what I really thought when I saw you for the first time?”

Jack felt as if he was being challenged. He straightened his back. “Yeah.”

“Paranoid, over-military hard-ass.”

Jack blinked, thinking back on himself when he’d been recalled to undertake that mission for General West before there even really was a Stargate Command. “Okay, so you’re a good judge of people. Well, what did you think of Sam?” he asked.

“Anomaly,” Daniel snapped.

“Anomaly?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, actual military intelligence.”

Jack considered that for a moment. “You know, I’m not sure if you told Sam that whether she’d be insulted or complimented.”

Daniel snorted. “I’m not either, so I’m not telling her.”

“What did you think of Hammond?” Jack asked, now genuinely curious.

“I don’t think I did so good with him,” Daniel said. Jack raised an eyebrow. “I thought he was a narrow-minded prick.”

“Really?” Jack could see that, though. Hammond’s initial reactions to Daniel were not positive to say the least. “What about Fraiser?”

“Scary,” Daniel said instantly. “Like she was someone I didn’t want to cross.”

“That’s accurate,” Jack said, laughing. “How about Feretti and Kawalsky?”

“Followers. Bully boy followers.”

“Bully boy?” Jack repeated. “Bully boy!? Daniel, do you know how hurt Feretti would be if he knew you thought he was a bully?”

Daniel gave him an odd look. “Kawalsky threw my suitcase at me, Jack,” the archeologist said. “Trying to hit me with it. Why do you think I’d wandered so far off from camp that I wound up seeing that yak thing, anyway?”

“I just thought it was you, Daniel,” Jack said. “He threw your suitcase at you?”

“And my books went flying. The kids found one of them six months later and brought it to me. A couple never turned up.”

“I never heard about that,” Jack said.

“They would hardly tell you, now would they?” Daniel pointed out. “Charlie apologized later, before we went through to Chulak, and Feretti and I have talked about it. I was kind of a dork, but I so desperately wanted to go through the damned thing, and if I’d said I had no certainty of getting us back, I knew West would never have gone for it.”

“I still have trouble believing you’d do something that . . .” Jack trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence for fear of upsetting his friend.

“That irresponsible?” Daniel asked. “I’ve been surprised for years that you actually forgave me. I was so certain that the symbol would be right there, waiting for us when we got through, but I knew that if I told any of you military types that there was any possibility of not finding the symbol, it would be the end of my chances of going anywhere.” He was silent for a moment. “I had nowhere else to go.”

“Well, I wasn’t exactly at my best that mission, either. Look over there at the bunch of really nice, overworked and subjugated people. Isn’t that special. Now let’s see if I can arm this nuclear warhead and kill them all.”

“You were under orders, Jack,” Daniel said.

“Let’s see, killing five thousand innocent civilians with a nuclear warhead . . . I believe that’s what we call an illegal order, Daniel.”

“I was under the impression that those rules only covered Earth,” Daniel remarked. “An oversight that I’ve wanted to see corrected for some time now.”

Jack shrugged. “I should have given it a little more thought than I did.”

“It turned out right in the end,” Daniel said. “More or less. I just wish we’d realized that Ra was lying when he said he was the last of his kind.”

“You and me both, Dannyboy, you and me both.”

“So, Jack, tell me about this perfect childhood of yours,” Daniel said. Jack grinned at him, and started to expound on what it was like to grow up way out in the country in Minnesota.

Hours later, when the conversation had shifted elsewhere more than once, and they were discussing, of all things, Al Capone and Prohibition, Jack noticed the clock’s readout. Six-thirty-four a.m. Daniel’s eyes followed his to the clock, and he stared. “I’m sorry, Jack, I didn’t --”

“Dr. Jackson,” Jack said in sententious tones. “If you don’t stop apologizing, I’m going to gag you.”

“That hardly seems fair,” Daniel said. “Damn, there’s no chance of either of us getting a decent night’s sleep now.”

“Nope,” Jack said, shrugging. “It’s definitely Friday morning. Let’s go have breakfast, then we can start getting ready for work.”

Daniel agreed and they headed downstairs. He seemed in a lighter frame of mind than when he’d woken up, and Jack had a feeling that the archeologist would have no trouble at all getting to sleep tonight.


	31. Chapter 31

They had a leisurely breakfast and then headed up to the mountain early. Leaving Daniel at his office, Jack went down to his own and sat down, staring at the list of things he had to do. He was due in his first session with the newbies at nine-thirty, so he set himself to making sure his presentation was ready and fresh in his mind. What’s different about a field mission with the SGC as opposed to with any normal command? Oy. Sometimes beating that into the heads of other officers was worse than trying to convince Daniel that he wasn’t supposed to pick up every fascinating rock he laid eyes on.

He gave his presentation to his group of seven men, all of whom seemed to be a little in awe of him. He wondered what the hell they’d heard and who from. At lunch time, he left them to go check on Daniel. He wouldn’t be seeing them again until tomorrow. This afternoon they had some time scheduled with Teal’c, and he hoped they enjoyed his lecture on Goa’uld and Jaffa battle tactics.

When he turned the corner, he saw Dr. Fraiser and General Hammond conferring quietly outside the door and his heart leapt into his throat. He sped up. Hammond looked up as he approached. “I don’t understand. If Dr. Jackson needed more time, you should have said something, colonel.”

Jack blinked. “What’s wrong?” he asked. Hammond gestured towards the door which Jack eased open. Daniel was sound asleep on his desk, a cup of coffee at his elbow. Seeing him blissfully unconscious brought an unbidden yawn to Jack’s lips. Suppressing it, he shut the door, turning to face the general. “He’s fine, sir, unless . . . he is just asleep, right?”

“He is,” Dr. Fraiser said. “But I wouldn’t have expected him to be quite this easily tired this long after the event. I’m concerned that depression or --” She broke off as Jack tried and failed to suppress a second yawn. “Is there something you should tell us, colonel?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Actually, there are a couple of things, but Daniel’s sleepiness is simple to explain. We stayed up all night talking.”

“About?” Hammond asked.

“A number of things, at least some of which were directly relevant to the current situation. But he finally started really opening up to me last night, and we both lost track of time.”

“So he’s all right?” Hammond asked. “He’s not having some kind of worrisome reaction?”

Jack shook his head. “No, he’s fine, though he’s going to be in some serious pain if he stays that way for very long. Look, general, can I talk to you and Dr. Fraiser once I get Daniel situated on the couch? There’s something I’ve really got to tell you.”

“Certainly, colonel. Come along to my office once you’ve seen to our boy.”

Jack went into the office as they left and found that Daniel was standing up and looking distinctly wobbly. “What happened?”

“You fell asleep on your desk,” Jack said, trying to control the laughter that was bubbling up at the shapes that had been pressed into Daniel’s face by the books and papers that he’d fallen asleep on.

“Damn. All I want to do is go back to sleep,” he said.

“So go back to sleep,” Jack replied. “Just on the couch instead of the desk. One of these days you’re going to fall off your stool and you won’t know what hit you.” As he spoke he took Daniel’s arm and guided him to the couch. Covering him up carefully, he turned to find Major Grady in the doorway, watching them.

The man had a couple of files and what looked like a planetary report in his hands. Jack put his finger to his lips and took them, depositing them on the desk before ushering the major out. When the door was closed, Grady said, “What’s wrong with him?”

Jack shrugged. “He’s just tired. Didn’t get much sleep last night.” Another yawn overtook him and he squeezed his eyes shut. “He’s fine, though,” he said, glancing at the man who was walking beside him. There was an odd look on his face, and Jack didn’t entirely know what to make of it. He remembered Grady’s expression at the briefing and made another mental note to keep an eye on the guy. They parted ways at the elevator, Jack heading down to Hammond’s office and Grady continuing on to another part of this level.

Walking right into the general’s office, he shut the door firmly behind him. “We need not to be interrupted, sir. There are things I need to tell you that shouldn’t become common knowledge under any circumstances.”

Hammond nodded and, calling his secretary, gave the order.

Jack didn’t know how Daniel was going to feel about this, but he’d already told the civilian that Hammond and Fraiser had to know. He swallowed nervously. “First off, Daniel is doing fine. He’s having nightmares, but that’s only to be expected. Other than that, I haven’t observed any real problems. This didn’t feel like a sexual attack to him, in the sense that Rigar showed no sexual interest, so most of the side effects of rape that are related to that seem to be missing from his reactions.”

“That’s good,” Hammond said, and Fraiser nodded.

Jack bit his lip. “The persistent difficulty he’s had with the examinations,” he said, and Fraiser’s eyes first widened, then grew more intent, “is actually related to that. Rigar was very clinical, very impersonal, and the comparison is what’s causing the trouble.”

Fraiser leaned towards him. “That’s good to know, colonel. Thank you.”

Jack nodded. “Now for the hard part,” he said, pausing. “A different matter emerged, and we royally screwed the pooch on this one.”

“Colonel?” Hammond said sounding both startled and disturbed. “What are you talking about?”

Jack grimaced. “Hathor,” he said, and two sets of eyes widened. “The assumption that was made concerning how the bitch obtained Daniel’s DNA was wrong in every respect.”

“Oh God,” Fraiser murmured, her hand flying to her mouth.

“So you see, this isn’t the first time he’s been raped,” Jack continued, and Hammond’s jaw dropped. “And I’m not even sure it’s the second after that crap with Shyla.”

“My understanding was that he couldn’t remember anything,” Hammond said.

“He couldn’t, at first, and when he could, no one asked him. He assumed that everyone knew he’d been . . . assaulted . . . and just weren’t talking about it, so he handled it on his own. When I told him last night that we thought she’d used some kind of sampling device, he broke down.”

Fraiser took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Hell,” she said. “I’m not sure which is worse. His finding out that we thought it hadn’t happened, or his thinking that we knew it happened and just didn’t do anything about it.”

Jack scowled. “Me neither,” he said. “The point is, though, that we haven’t been paying enough attention to the possible long-term effects of what happens to people around here. I think we’re going to have to institute some kind of regular check up. Frankly, I don’t know if Daniel’s situation would have been caught by something like that, I get the feeling he’s been hiding his emotional reactions to things so long that it’s second nature. Still, some kind of second look at people a while after the trauma would probably not go amiss.”

“No, it would not,” Fraiser replied crisply. “With your approval, General Hammond,” she paused and the general nodded sharply. “I’ll get some kind of schedule worked out right away.”

Jack nodded. That was what he had been after. He sighed and considered best how to phrase his next request. “Now sir, I don’t know, but I don’t see any real need to add this into Daniel’s file,” he said tentatively.

Hammond raised an eyebrow. “Not the open file, Jack, I think you’re right, but it needs to be documented. And Dr. Jackson is going to have to either debrief about it or submit a report.”

“Then you might as well take me off the case then, sir,” Jack said.

“I beg your pardon?” Hammond exclaimed.

“I guarantee you that if you put this in his file or make him debrief about it, he’ll close down completely.” Hammond’s eyes narrowed with thought, but he didn’t seem angry. “It’s been two years, sir,” Jack went on persuasively. “What’s likely to come up now? Hathor’s dead, it hasn’t affected his health or job performance, and he’s obviously handled it fairly well on his own. Frankly, the only thing you could offer him now is counseling, and I kind of thought that’s what I was supposed to be doing.”

“I propose a compromise,” Janet said. “Colonel, you are acting as his counselor, but I think you need back up. You need to be talking to a psychologist on his behalf, someone who --”

“I am not telling some shrink what Daniel’s been telling me,” Jack growled.

“You wouldn’t have to give them specifics. Just someone of whom you can ask questions and who can give you advice on how to proceed.”

“I don’t need advice,” Jack said.

“It’s a reasonable request, Jack,” Hammond said. “If the man’s been raped twice, possible three times, by different people at vastly different points in time, you’ve got to admit that might be a little outside your competence level.”

“Look, we’ve got a new doctor on the staff,” Fraiser said. “She’s an expert on combat-related mental trauma. You don’t have to tell her anything detailed, just give her a general idea of what you’re working with Daniel on and get some advice on how to proceed. She’s already studying his file.”

“She’s what?” Jack demanded, appalled that they’d gone so far as that without even consulting him.

Fraiser grimaced at his accusatory tone. “She’s going to be looking at everyone’s files, colonel,” the doctor said. “It’s part of her job. But under the circumstances . . .” She let her words trail off and Jack slumped.

“Fine, but then I want to talk to her right now. And I want her instructed that what I tell her is not to go on file anywhere. Daniel is most insistent that nothing suggesting mental instability is to go in his files anywhere.”

The doctor shook her head. “Colonel O’Neill, if Dr. Jackson starts showing signs of mental instability, it will --”

Jack cut her off. “You mean like last time?” he asked. Fraiser fell silent, looking as if he’d slapped her. He felt a little bad about it, but not bad enough to apologize. That was another place where they’d failed Daniel, not only by the events that took place but also by not addressing the trust issues that were bound to arise afterwards.

“We can’t give Dr. Jackson a blanket immunity to signs of mental instability, Jack,” Hammond said.

Jack consciously determined not to call him a narrow-minded prick. “I never said we should, sir,” he said instead. “But with all the hell Daniel’s been through in the last four years, you’d expect him to be a little unstable mentally. Somehow, though, he’s not. He’s like the camel with the straw, only you put on one more straw and he just keeps trudging along.”

“Fine, Jack,” Hammond said after a moment. “I will give the order that Dr. Lisle is not to put the substance of your meetings into writing.”

“Thank you, sir,” Jack said. “Where is this woman, and can you give her the orders now? I do have a question I should probably get answered by a professional.”

Hammond nodded. “I’ll call her now. Dr. Fraiser, please introduce Jack to Dr. Lisle.”

Fraiser led him to a small office near the infirmary. The door was closed, so she knocked. “Come in.” The voice was not what Jack had expected, nor was the woman somehow when Fraiser opened the door. She was older, old enough to be his mother. Her hair was silver gilt, neatly styled, and she was wearing a pair of jeans and a button down shirt. “So, you’re O’Neill?”

“I am,” Jack said, blinking in startlement at the woman before him. She rose from the chair behind the desk, which was piled high with files. There were boxes against the walls with photographs and knick-knacks, but it was clear that the woman was working first and decorating later.

“Colonel O’Neill, this is Dr. Lisle,” Fraiser said, grinning at his discomposure. “I’ll just leave you to it, then.” She left, shutting the door behind her.

“Please, Colonel O’Neill, take a seat,” Lisle said, gesturing to one of the chairs behind him. It wasn’t standard issue, being a more comfortable model than the five minute chair he had in his own office.

“Thank you, Dr. Lisle,” he said, sitting down in the chair.

She cleared a couple of files out of the way and leaned forward in her chair, placing her folded arms on the desk. “I’ve never really approved of the military nosing into my confidential files, so I really have no problem with the fact that General Hammond just gave me permission to tell them to go fuck themselves.”

Uncertain how to take this blunt statement, Jack licked his lips and then said, “I see. You do realize that any ‘confidential files’ on this matter would pretty much have to be stored in your head.”

She grinned broadly. “I have an eidetic memory, sweetie, so that’s not really a problem.”

“Sweetie?” Jack repeated, staring at her.

“You’re young enough to be my grandson, colonel, you’ll have to forgive me.”

“I am not,” Jack exclaimed. “You can’t possibly be that old.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Well, thank you for that ringing endorsement, young man, but I have to disagree with you. I have a grandson your age.” She pulled a file towards her and flipped it open. The name on it appeared to be O’Neill. “Actually, he’s about six months older, retired from the Army, living in Alaska and guiding idiots who want to freeze their butts off and shoot things.”

Jack blinked. She didn’t look more than sixty, but . . . “I see. Um . . . so you don’t have a problem with keeping everything I tell you to yourself, Dr. Lisle?”

“Nope, and would you mind calling me Harry? Dr. Lisle makes me feel old.”

“Harry?”

“Short for Harriet,” she explained briefly.

“Sure, Harry. And you can call me Jack.”

“All right, Jack, I understand you’re acting as counselor for Dr. Jackson.” Jack nodded. “And that I’m going to be serving as your back up, since Dr. Jackson doesn’t wish to see a counselor.”

“Right,” Jack said.

“So, do you have any questions?”

“First, I need to know that you’re absolutely serious about not writing anything of what I’m about to say to you in any file anywhere? Daniel would never forgive me if that happened. He doesn’t open up easily, and now that he has, I am not going to blow it.”

“Seems like a wise choice,” she said soberly. “I give you my assurance that nothing you tell me will be written down or discussed with anyone other than you. Now, I’ve read through a fair amount of Dr. Jackson’s file, and skimmed yours and those of your teammates on SG-1. I’ve also read through some mission reports, so I have an idea of the way the four of you relate to one another. What are your questions?”

Jack took a deep breath and sighed. “Well, first, there’s something that won’t have appeared in the files anywhere, because the evidence was misinterpreted at the time, and so misreported.”

She pulled another file towards her and looked down. “Can you tell me when this ‘something’ happened, so I can put into context?”

“Have you read about the Hathor incident?” Jack asked.

She flipped through the file and looked down, and he saw her eyes run across the page briefly. “Yes, I have,” she said. “What was misinterpreted?”

“I don’t have any real details, Daniel wasn’t very specific, but she obtained the DNA by forced sexual contact, not by means of some form of sampling technology.”

She looked down at the file. “There was no sign of physical force, so I’ll go out on a limb and suppose that it must be related to this pheromonal control she seemed to exert over the men on the base.” Jack nodded. “So he has been raped before, by a female and an alien.” Jack nodded again. “With the specific and stated purpose of creating more creatures to be implanted in unwilling human bodies and wage war against us.”

Jack nodded a third time. “Yup. And no one realized it at the time. Initially, he didn’t remember what had happened, and then later he thought we all knew what had happened.”

“And because of his solitary nature, and his own assumptions that he’s not worth bothering about, he assumed that the lack of action taken was normal.”

“You got all that from his file?” Jack asked incredulously.

“Your Dr. McKenzie may be enamored of his own theories, but he’s not lacking in perception.”

Jack blinked. “I see. Well, I’m assuming that you’ve read the descriptions of the most recent incident?”

“Yes, that I have. Pretty vile. So, is he broken?”


	32. Chapter 32

_Jack blinked. “I see. Well, I’m assuming that you’ve read the descriptions of the most recent incident?”_

_“Yes, that I have. Pretty vile. So, is he broken?”_

 

Jack sat up straight, rage surging through him. “Hell no!”

She leveled a calm, unflinching look in his direction, and he flushed a little. “Is he bent?”

Grimacing, Jack said, “He’s always been a little bent.”

Her lips twitched. “More bent than usual?”

Jack sighed. “Maybe a little. Hell, maybe a lot. But he’s recovering.”

“So, I was given to understand that you had some specific questions. If you’re confident now that you can trust me, why don’t you ask me.”

“Actually, I have one more question first. This needs to stay between us. Hammond and Fraiser included. I do need advice, but if I wanted them to know about it, I’d ask them. Did Hammond’s orders include Hammond?”

She looked thoughtful for a moment then reached out and picked up the phone, asking to be patched through to the general. Jack bit his lip and started fiddling with the hem of his BDU jacket. “Sir, I have a couple of questions if you don’t mind.” She paused. “You were somewhat unclear on one point. No written records is understood, but if I am asked to keep something from you, sir, is that acceptable? So long as the patient isn’t a danger to himself or others?” She nodded. “Thank you sir, I appreciate your confidence.” She hung up and turned to Jack. “Well, colonel, does that meet your approval?”

Jack pursed his lips. “That depends on if you trust my judgment.”

She gave him a long look. “Well, we’ve been trusting your judgment to save the world for some years now, so I suspect I can say yes to that.”

“Fine.” Jack shifted forward. “There are a couple of things that are concerning me that I’m not sure how best to address. One, Daniel keeps asking why him . . . why people always focus on him. I don’t know how to answer the question. The one time I tried, I think I only made things worse.”

“Why do people focus on him, Jack?” Harry asked, raising her eyebrows.

“What do you mean?” Jack asked.

“You seem to think you know. So why is it?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Harry’s eyebrows just raised further. “I mean, he’s . . . he’s Daniel.”

She tilted her head. “Are you saying that Dr. Jackson is somehow a natural victim?”

“No . . . um . . . yes . . . um . . . not really.” Harry was watching him with interest, and he squirmed slightly. “It’s not like he goes out of his way to let himself be victimized, like an abused wife or something.”

She nodded. “All right, I want you to do something for me, Jack. I want you to remember that you’re not talking to Dr. Jackson, and that Dr. Jackson will never hear what you are about to say. Now tell me what you think is the reason that Dr. Jackson seems to bear the brunt of so many attacks.”

Jack took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well, I don’t . . .” He grimaced. “He’s got a sense of excitement and wonder about new people and things that makes him come across as much younger than he is. It makes him seem incredibly innocent, though he’s been at pains lately to try and convince me that he’s not.”

“How so?” she asked.

“Oh, he keeps throwing his historical knowledge in my face, mentioning people like Caligula, or the plays of Seneca, which I know nothing about, by the way, and saying that he knows the horrible things people can do to one another.”

“I see what you mean. Go on.”

“Go on . . .” Jack looked down at his hands. “He’s got to be one of the nicest people I know and that shows all over his face and in his body language when he meets someone. He always expects the best out of people, and that shows, too. Seven out of ten times we meet someone new, that serves us in good stead. They like him, we talk, all goes well and we wind up with nifty treaties and things.”

“And the other three times?”

“They see him as a target, a victim, something to be hurt and destroyed. It doesn’t help that he’s just oozing with charisma. I mean, it doesn’t seem possible for people not to notice him. Carter’s a beautiful woman, but somehow Daniel almost always seems to wind up being the focus of attention for people.” He shook his head. “I tried, I did my damnedest to piss Rigar off, to get him to focus on me, to lock his thoughts on me because I’m in charge and that’s my job, but he decided to go after Daniel anyway.”

“So you’re saying that villains seem to focus on Dr. Jackson?”

“Actually, everyone seems to focus on him,” Jack said. “He’s just a very appealing person. You can see it starting from the very beginning. We went to Abydos and the local leader gave his daughter to Daniel as his wife. The Abydonians adore Daniel. Even after Sha’re was captured, Goa’ulded and then killed, they still adore Daniel. We went to see the Nox, who don’t show themselves to people, and Lya liked Daniel.” He shook his head. “When we found out that some guy had gone through the stargate in 1945, it was Daniel who insisted that we go back for him in case he was still alive, and when we found him, naked and having been alone for fifty years, Daniel was the one able to offer him comfort and get through to him when the rest of us couldn’t imagine how to even start.”

“That would be Earnest Littlefield,” Harry said, consulting the file.

“Yes, ma’am,” Jack said.

“I see. Go on.”

Jack thought for a moment. “That fish guy, Nem, he started out trying to torture Daniel for information and wound up begging him not to undergo the procedure to get it because it might damage him. Hathor went straight for Daniel, I mean, he was nice to her, but then he’s nice to everyone. We got to a planet where some guy was all on fire to execute Teal’c because he’d killed the guy’s father. Daniel was the one who got through to him, convinced him that Teal’c wasn’t the same Jaffa who had killed the old man.” Jack rolled his eyes. “I mean, there’s that. Who else but Daniel would have forgiven the person who first kidnapped his wife, chose her to become a host, then finally had to kill her? I don’t know that I could have if it had been my wife.”

“I see.”

Jack was on a roll. “When we found the Tollans, one of their people got all fixated on Sam, but their leader Omoc, who is a grade A asshole and spent his whole time here criticizing us and telling us how incredibly primitive we are, he liked Daniel. Oh, not at first, but he actually tried to give Daniel scientific information. This from the guy who wouldn’t have told us how to clip our nails if we didn’t already know how. For crying out loud, Daniel went to an alternate reality where he convinced a group of people who were, essentially, us, to give up their last chance of escape so he could come back to his own reality and save our planet, which they would never see or be affected by. How the hell did he do that? Oh, and let me point out that in the universes we’ve been to where the Goa’uld have taken over the Earth, Daniel hasn’t been part of the SGC. That alone should tell you something.”

She nodded.

“On Hadante, Sam was initially targeted, but as soon as she was protected by Linea, all the attention switched to Daniel. He was attacked, but we’ve never gotten any details out of him just what happened. Teal’c stopped it, but when I asked Daniel how far it got, all I’ve managed to get him to say is ‘not far.’” Jack shrugged. “Then Shyla became utterly convinced that Daniel was her ‘destiny’ when he prevented her from throwing herself off a cliff.” Jack closed his eyes. “I screwed that mission up from the word go,” he said. “But Daniel, even out of his mind, addicted to the sarcophagus, got us home safely. Then he made our first contact with the Asgard, risking his life for Geirwyn’s sake.”

“Geirwyn?”

“The woman who was in charge of the Vikings we ran into the first time we went to Cimmeria.”

“Ah, yes, I’ve read about her,” Harry said, glancing down at the file in front of her again.

“It just goes on and on. When people get angry, if they have any decency in them, Daniel can calm them down. When they get angry and have no decency, they focus on Daniel and . . .” Jack shook his head. “And bad things happen to the best man I know. One of my colleagues calls him the conscience of the SGC. I’ve said and thought the same thing myself.” He stopped and there was silence for a moment.   “When I first met Dr. Daniel Jackson, I thought he was an undisciplined, long-haired geek with no common sense and less usefulness. I was ready and willing to set off a thermonuclear warhead, kill roughly five thousand innocent people and myself, without a second thought. Within forty-eight hours, Daniel died to save my life, persuaded me that my life was worth living again, saved us all and sent us home again. Lord, even Ra was intrigued by him. He brought Daniel back to life after his Jaffa had killed him.”

“So you postulate that Dr. Jackson tends to be targeted this way because he is an enthusiastic, earnest man who projects youthful innocence and charisma by the bucketload.”

“Daniel is the next best thing to a saint,” Jack said. “How the hell do I tell him any of this?”

“The simple answer, Jack, is that you don’t,” she said.

“So how do I answer the damned question?” Jack demanded. “He’s asked me more than once now why people seem to focus on him.”

“Find something plausible that doesn’t touch on these qualities you’ve mentioned. He’s a civilian, so he might be targeted for a number of reasons related to that fact.”

Jack nodded. He could think of a half dozen credible explanations, but he wasn’t sure he could pass them along to Daniel without setting the other man’s suspicions flaring. Still, he’d have to try. “All right, that’s settled,” he said. “Now for the other question, and it’s a doozy. It’s the one about which I absolutely don’t want any information to leave this room.” She nodded. “When Daniel was dealing with his trouble with Hathor and the nightmares related to it, he started having difficulties with insomnia. He discovered that a couple of swallows of brandy put him out like a light.” Her eyes widened. “He says he stopped drinking the brandy altogether as he stopped having the insomnia, and I believe him implicitly. He doesn’t ever drink much alcohol because it affects him far too quickly.”

“And has he started having insomnia again?”

“Yes,” Jack said. “And I stopped him last night from drinking the brandy he had with him.” He decided not to mention the secretiveness Daniel had displayed as being potentially prejudicial.

“Would you say he was an alcoholic?” Her tone was calm and not accusatory, so Jack struggled to keep his own response measured.

“No, and having brushed the edges of that particular disorder myself, I think I’d recognize it.”

“Are you sure?”

“He almost never drinks, and while I don’t actually live with him, we do go on extended off world missions that last as long as two weeks. He doesn’t take a stash of liquor with him, and the only withdrawals he suffers are from caffeine, and that only if we neglect to take a sufficient supply of coffee with us.”

She nodded and toyed with her pen thoughtfully. “Then I would recommend that you monitor the situation. It doesn’t actually sound as if Dr. Jackson is becoming dependent on alcohol, but it would be better if he found other means to achieve rest. Just how paranoid a heterosexual male are you, Jack?”

The question came completely out of the blue and startled Jack to the point of staring at her open-mouthed for several moments. Finally he found his voice. “What?”

“Well, some men are sufficiently paranoid that they are uncomfortable giving massages to their male friends.”

Jack blinked. “I don’t think that would be a problem from my perspective. Hard to say how Daniel would react.”

“I suspect he will feel as if he is bothering you, given what I have read of his personality. If you feel you can offer him this sort of relaxation aid, then you will have to be prepared for the likelihood that he will not wish to accept help, not because it makes him uncomfortable, but because he will feel that he is putting you out.”

Jack nodded. “I’m having to tell him to stop apologizing every five minutes, lately.”

“Keep reassuring him that you are only doing what friends do for one another. From what I see, and from you’ve said, he gives a lot of himself to others, but takes very little in return. That sort of one-sided equation isn’t healthy over time.”

“I can’t help but agree with that,” Jack said.

“So, what sorts of aid are you offering your friend at this point?”

Jack shrugged. “A shoulder to cry on, an ear, and as much normalcy as is possible under the circumstances.”

“Good, and is he availing himself of these resources?”

“Sometimes. He doesn’t ask for help easily. We mostly wind up talking very late at night, with the lights off. He seems to prefer the dark for that kind of conversation.”

She nodded. “It makes it easier for him when he can’t see your expression and knows you can’t see his. Apart from the sleeping problems, is he eating properly?”

“He doesn’t have much choice,” Jack said, snorting. “I’ve been pretty bossy about that. He’s probably eating better right now than he usually does. He doesn’t cook much at home, and he tends to forget to eat for long stretches of time.”

“He forgets to eat?” she said, amusement in her tone.

“He’d live on power bars, chocolate and coffee if it were possible,” Jack said. “Not because he doesn’t like food, but because he doesn’t like to take the time away from his work. He’s very driven.”

She nodded “I am familiar with the concept. He also, undoubtedly works as hard as he does when there are problems because it helps him to distance himself from unpleasant thoughts and memories. This can be a serious problem in some cases,” she went on. “It’s something else you’ll have to monitor. You won’t want him going out on field missions if his goal is to work himself into complete exhaustion to aid in getting to sleep. That sort of focus can distract from important things like self-preservation.”

“I’m ahead of you there,” Jack said. “And I should probably go check on him. We spent all night talking, and he fell asleep at his desk. It’s well past lunchtime.”

“All right,” she said, smiling up at him as he rose. “Please keep in contact. I’m very concerned about this young man. As you say, he seems to have a lot on his plate. If you can persuade him to come talk to me, it might be good for him, but don’t press him. It will have to be his decision.”

“Right,” Jack said. “I will mention you to him.”

“Good. Have a good afternoon, Jack, and if you feel the need to talk at any time, either about Dr. Jackson or yourself, please give me a call or come knock.”

“Sure,” Jack said, nodding and going out.


	33. Chapter 33

Daniel woke up and pushed the blanket onto the floor, blinking around at his office. He vaguely remembered Jack guiding him to the sofa and getting him to lay down. He walked across to his desk and saw that there were a pair of files and a planet report sitting on top of what he’d been working on.

Flipping open the report, he saw that it was from SG-6's most recent off planet mission and the files contained partially translated treaty proposals. It was nothing earth-shattering, but Daniel guessed that Frist wasn’t confident in his translations and wanted some back up. Not wanting to make assumptions that might be unwarranted, Daniel shot off an e-mail to Colonel Miller, who was last on the custody log, explaining and apologizing that he had been asleep when the files had arrived and asking for guidance on their disposition.

Setting them aside and cursing his own lethargy, he set immediately back to work on translating the messages that SG-15 had intercepted. They’d been waiting for nearly a week, and it was unpardonable that he’d fallen asleep in the middle of working on them. He got the translations complete and was just sitting down at his computer, preparing to type them up when Jack came in.

“Whatcha doing, space monkey?”

Daniel gave Jack a wry look. “Just getting a couple of translations typed up for General Hammond and SG-15,” Daniel said, returning his attention firmly to his computer screen.

Jack reached out and plucked up the sheets he’d written his translation out on. “Transcription?” he said incredulously. “You’re doing the transcription yourself?”

Daniel snatched the pages back and set them ready again. “It’s easier that way,” he replied.

“How so?”

“My notes aren’t always that easy to make sense of,” Daniel said, getting the template open and inputting the file codes.

“I’m sure there must be a way to free you from transcription,” Jack commented, crossing his arms. “It doesn’t seem like an economical use of your time.”

Daniel was already typing madly. “It really doesn’t take that long, Jack. While I was in the infirmary, someone was typing up my notes for me and it made me crazy. I got a couple of them back because he kept reversing words or getting them out of order entirely. I guess I wasn’t as clear as I might have been,” he added shrugging. “Anyway, it’s just easier. The time it would take to train somebody to work out what I mean would be better spent --”

“Typing?” Jack interrupted, sounding irritable. “I’m sure we can find you someone with enough brains to work out what you mean or to ask you if they’re not sure. I’d say your time would be better spent on the actual nuts and bolts of translation, not on typing stuff in.”

All the while Jack was talking, Daniel was typing. “Look, regardless, Hammond and SG-15 need these translations as soon as possible, and all I’ve got left is the typing.”

“You need to eat lunch.”

“I need to finish this,” Daniel countered. “You should have woken me up instead of putting me to bed on the couch. Some of these things,” he gestured back at his inbox, “have been waiting more than a week.”

“Then they can wait another hour, Daniel,” Jack said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I put you to bed on the couch when I should have made you take lunch. It’s nearly three now, and you damned well need to eat.”

“Ten minutes, Jack,” Daniel said, continuing to type. “Fifteen at the outside. But I’ll be done sooner if you’re not talking.”

Jack huffed, but he backed off. “Fifteen minutes, then,” he said.

By Daniel’s onscreen clock, he printed out his two newly transcribed translations twenty-one minutes later. Jack was hovering behind him impatiently as Daniel matched the pages up to their respective files. tucked the handwritten notes into their places in the files for future reference, and filled out the custody log on each of them. “Now, I just need to drop these off with the general’s secretary and we can go on our merry way to lunch.”

Grumbling, Jack dogged his heels through the halls, just about driving Daniel up a wall. He passed the files on to Lt. Schafer and signed off on them in her presence, then turned to find Jack waiting, looking antsy as hell.

“Are we ready now?” the colonel asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I am,” Daniel said with a guileless grin. “I don’t know about you.”

Jack glowered at him as they set forth, and Daniel kept his expression as bland as possible when he was so amused.

“So why the all fired hurry?” Jack asked. “What was that stuff?”

“Military intelligence that might be useful to the planet SG-15's negotiating with right now. General Hammond already put off the briefing on it once, and since it’s currently scheduled for eight a.m. tomorrow morning, I figured I’d better make sure they got to read the translation before then.”

Jack sighed and Daniel guessed he saw the logic in that. “Daniel, you need more help.”

“That’s what people like Nyan and Robert are for.”

“Not that kind of help,” Jack growled. “That’s great, but it’s not what I’m talking about.”

Daniel was actually grateful to Sgt. French for interrupting to tell him how glad he was to see Daniel back at work. He chatted with him for a couple of minutes, asking after Trish and if they’d selected names for the upcoming twins. Daniel agreed that Deirdre and Ashley were excellent names, and then, giving way to Jack’s impatience, excused himself so they could head on to the commissary. Fortunately, the interruption had distracted Jack sufficiently that he was no longer badgering Daniel about extra help. Secretaries and assistants of the sort Jack wanted him to have were more trouble than they were worth.

“I should have grabbed you and made you come down here,” Jack groused. “We’re at the worst possible time of the day, the end of lunch and before the beginning of dinner.”

Daniel shrugged. “Food is food, Jack, and you can always have a sandwich.” Jack, however, was in full swing with his complaints, and Daniel followed him through the line, listening and rolling his eyes in sympathy with the cooks behind the counter. It wasn’t bad, after all. Jack just liked to complain.

Sam came in just as they were sitting down with their trays, and Daniel wondered when her last meal had been. She had dark circles under her eyes and looked exhausted. He nudged Jack. “We’ve been back less than two days. How has Sam gotten so tired so fast?”

Jack’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know.” He got up and crossed the room, leaving Daniel to watch. After a moment, Jack sent Sam to sit down and finished gathering up food for her on his own.

Sam walked over to the table and lowered herself gently into the seat. Daniel gazed at her with concern. “You okay?”

“Sure,” she said, but her voice sounded nasal as if she were badly congested. “I’ve got a little bit of a headache.”

“You don’t sound so good, Sam,” Daniel said, watching her worriedly. The way she was holding her head suggested that she had more than ‘a little bit’ of a headache.

Jack came back with a tray full of healthy stuff, and a big glass of juice. “Eat up,” he said. “What, did you lose a fight with a runaway MALP?”

She gave him a dirty look, but she reached immediately for the juice and started drinking, wincing as she swallowed.

Daniel shook his head and looked at Jack. “When she’s eaten, we’re taking her to Janet,” he said firmly.

“Agreed.”

“What?” Sam exclaimed. “No, I’m fine. I just have a headache.”

“Have you taken anything for it?” Daniel asked, and Sam blinked stupidly, looking as if she wasn’t really sure what the answer was.

“That’s it. As soon as you’ve gotten yourself outside some of that, we’re taking you to the doc,” Jack said firmly.

“I don’t need to see Janet,” Sam said, sniffling. “I’m fine.” She followed that firm statement up with a flurry of coughing that had people turning to look at them from other tables.

“Jack, I’ll take the cup, you take Sam. Let’s get her to the infirmary now.”

They got her up and moving, leaving their food behind. “Would you stop? I’m fine,” she said, but now her voice sounded hoarse. She cleared her throat and went on. “I don’t need to go to the infirmary. I’ve got work to do.”

“Am I this bad, Jack?” Daniel asked.

“Worse,” Jack growled.

When they reached the infirmary, Lt. Cogan came forward immediately and got Sam over to an exam bed. Jack and Daniel waited nearby while the nurse got Sam to cooperate with the basics of medical care. When she was done and had noted the relevant information on a chart, she got Sam to lie back on the bed and covered her up with a blanket.

Daniel walked over and put her juice glass down on the bedside table. Sam looked up at him, eyes kind of hazy and very confused. “I’m actually sick, aren’t I?”

“I think you might be,” Daniel said, looking down at her.

“I think we can just about guarantee it,” Jack said, walking up beside Daniel and crossing his arms. “What is it with you scientists? Can’t you tell when you’re getting sick?”

Janet came up and put her hand on Sam’s forehead. “Damn, you’ve got the same thing Cassie has, I’ll bet.”

“Oh, hell, hasn’t she been sick for three days already?” Sam groaned.

“Yup.” Janet smiled down at her. Then the doctor looked up at Jack and Daniel. “I want both of you to start drinking lots of fluids, getting lots of vitamin C and plenty of rest. Sam’s probably been contagious for the last day or so, which means that you two both have a good chance of coming down with it. Teal’c should be fine, Junior ought to take care of things for him, but you two need to take good care of yourselves.”

“I don’t have to stay here, do I?” Sam asked.

“We’ll see,” Janet said. “Someone will have to take care of you, you’re not in any condition to look after yourself.”

“I could take some translation stuff home,” Daniel said.

“I’ll take you up on that if I can’t find someone else,” Janet said, and Daniel raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Not that you couldn’t manage it, Daniel, but your immune system’s got to be pretty low right now.”

“Yeah, Daniel,” Sam said. “She’s right. You’ll just get yourself sick, and you don’t need that right now.”

“Actually, I’m pretty good at avoiding getting sick,” Daniel said, but Jack shook his head.

“Teal’c would be a good bet,” he said. “I don’t think he’s got anything urgent scheduled anytime soon, and he’s not likely to come down with it.”

“I’ll give him a call,” Janet said. “Thanks for the thought, colonel. Now, I’d like my patient to get changed into something a little more comfortable and then get some rest, so if you two will take yourselves off . . .”

Daniel nodded, and he and Jack said sympathetic ‘see you later’s to Sam, then left.

“Well, I’d better get back to work,” Daniel said, but Jack caught his shoulder as he turned away.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “You didn’t finish your lunch.”

Daniel blinked. Lunch. Right. He sighed and turned to follow Jack back to the commissary, aware of a hollow spot in his midsection that hadn’t been particularly noticeable until Jack had spoken.

When they reached the commissary, they wound up fielding a lot of worried questions. When a member of an SG team was suddenly rushed off to the infirmary, it tended to alarm people. They reassured people that Sam just had some kind of a normal bug and sat down again. Robert Rothman joined them a moment later, sitting down next to Jack, across from Daniel.

“Thanks for getting those files down to me, Daniel,” he said. “I had five different people asking me when I’d be done with them, but no one seemed to know where they’d ended up.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “That’s odd. They had clear directions to me. I couldn’t figure out why anyone had dropped them in my inbox. Were the forms not filled out when they were forwarded?”

“It just said ‘linguistics,’” Robert said disgustedly. “I ask you, five guys doing linguistics on base, no department that’s even called ‘linguistics,’ and Tolliver thinks that’s sufficient information.”

“That’s why the form says ‘name’ not ‘department,’” Daniel said, annoyed. “That would be too broad when half the members of any given department might be offworld and unavailable to answer questions. Why didn’t you look in my inbox, Robert?”

“I did,” Robert said. “They weren’t there.”

“Did you check the urgent one?”

Robert shook his head. “It would never have occurred to me to look there. Isn’t that just for military intelligence and stuff like that? Stuff I’m not even supposed to know about?”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “I guess so,” he said.

“Military morons,” Robert muttered and Daniel’s eye was caught by the way Jack tilted his head, looking both pained and annoyed.

“Come on, Robert, that happens everywhere,” Daniel said reasonably. “It’s not limited to the SGC or the military in general.”

“Yeah, but we’re here and Tolliver is --”

Daniel caught movement in the line of people heading towards the food. “Ten feet behind you,” he said hastily.

“What?” Robert broke off and craned his neck to see. “It doesn’t matter. I’m tired of my files getting misdirected and then people asking me where they are and why they aren’t done. Somehow the fact that the files never reached me doesn’t make a difference, I’m still supposed to be responsible for completing the work.”

“Well, you have them now,” Daniel said. “And they didn’t look too tough.”

“No, they weren’t. I’ve already finished them and sent them on, but that’s not the point.” Robert was full of righteous irritation. “It’s the principle of the thing, Daniel.”

Daniel was about to respond, but Jack beat him to it. “I agree,” the colonel said.

Robert opened his mouth, and Daniel could see the argument on his lips, but then Jack’s words seemed to sink in. “I beg your pardon? Are you speaking to me?”

Jack looked as surprised as Robert did. “I am,” he said. “I’ll look into it. Anyone else want some Jello?”

Daniel shook his head and so did Robert. Jack shrugged and walked off. Daniel looked over at Robert. “You do realize you’ve been sounding off in the presence of the second in command, don’t you?”

Robert gave him a perplexed look as he fiddled with the remnants of his meal. “What do you mean?” he asked.

Daniel sighed. “Jack, the second in command of the whole base, remember?”

“Oh.” Robert looked back towards Jack, brows drawing together. “Is that a problem?” he asked. “Maybe he’ll actually do something about it.”

Daniel glanced over at Jack who was walking back carrying a little clear plastic cup full of orange gelatin. “That’s what I’m afraid of,” he murmured.

“What? Do you think he’d cause us problems?”

“Not intentionally,” Daniel said, realizing how he sounded and trying to cover himself.

Robert stood up. “Well, I’ve got work to be doing,” he said. “On files that actually found their way to the right desk for once.”

Daniel nodded at him and as Jack reached the table, he rose as well. “I’ve eaten, Jack, now I’ve got to get back to work.”

“We’ll be knocking off at six today, Danny,” Jack said. Daniel’s eyes narrowed at his use of the nickname. “Fraiser’s orders, so don’t glare at me.”

Daniel sighed and shrugged acquiescence, then left Jack alone to savor the orange-flavored jiggly stuff.


	34. Chapter 34

Jack was deep in thought as he ate his Jello. That had been a singularly enlightening conversation. Daniel wasn’t a complainer, not about little things. He’d stand up and be noticed if someone’s civil rights were being violated, or if an important archeological find was in danger, but something minor like poor working conditions he’d probably barely notice.

Curious and a bit irritated, Jack strolled by Balinsky’s work station and asked him a few questions. The man was very circumspect, but he, too, seemed to be having similar issues. It was unacceptable, and Jack determined to do something about it. If he improved the lot of the whole archeology department, Daniel could scarcely complain about it.

Heading to Major Henessey’s office, he got a list of the staff on duty at the base and another list of people who were eligible for transfer from elsewhere. Scanning them briefly, he asked for the personnel files of anyone who looked appropriately administrative. They had copies of the files of everyone who was considered a possible candidate for the program. Taking them with him, he headed back to his office. He needed two junior staffer types and one senior to keep an eye on them and on Daniel. After all, Dr. Jackson was a department head and most of the other department heads had administrative staff to do the piddly stuff for them. Jack didn’t have his own staff, but he shared the general’s, which was more than enough. The archeology department was a group of heavily degreed civilians, professionals all, any of whom might be used to the presence of graduate students to do the grunt work, but all of whom were undoubtedly also used to the need to make do with what they had. Academics and university departments rarely had money to burn.

Jack sorted through the files, found a group of about six candidates for the top job, four of whom were not already involved in the program, three of whom were male, and therefore less likely to be immediately smitten by Daniel’s sweetness and good looks.

Giving Hammond a quick call and determining that he had about four minutes free, Jack grabbed the files and headed up to the general’s office. Hammond looked up at him curiously. “How can I help you, colonel?”

Jack put the pile of files down on the edge of the general’s desk. “I’ve discovered an area that seems to have been overlooked, and am addressing it. The archeology department needs an administrative staff.”

“I agree,” the general said. “I’ve tried to get Dr. Jackson to take some action on the matter, but he says that they’re fine. I’ve had complaints, however, that projects aren’t always done in a timely manner because they don’t keep sufficient track of the files that come their way.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “Oddly, the complaint on their end is that the files get misdirected and poorly tracked, and then those who misdirected them in the first place the blame on the archeologists. I gather they haven’t complained before now because they figured that, as civilians, they had to expect some failure to cooperate and communicate from their military colleagues.”

Hammond’s eyebrows raised. “That’s very interesting, colonel.”

“I plan to give them their very own administrative staff, sir, military in nature, full of assertive people who are good communicators and who don’t have difficulties working with civilians. However, I’m going to need to send for some of the candidates I was looking at to interview them and get an idea of their personalities.”

“And to do that, you need my permission,” Hammond finished for him. “All right, colonel, you have my go ahead. Requisition whomever you need, give them the short spiel if you see the need, and let me know the outcome.”

“Yes, sir,” Jack said, grinning. “I should have Daniel spitting nails before the end of the week.”

“Has he gotten anything useful out of those photos you all took the other day?”

Jack blinked. He’d completely forgotten the photographs. “I . . . um . . . I haven’t given them to him yet, sir.”

“You haven’t?” Hammond exclaimed. “But wasn’t that the whole point of the expedition?”

“We went on vacation that same day, sir,” Jack said. “I --”

“I understand. Well, you won’t be going anywhere until Dr. Jackson is cleared and Major Carter is over her indisposition, so unless Dr. Jackson seems to be in need of distraction, I guess there’s no hurry.”

Jack nodded. “Thank you, sir.” He picked up his files, but Hammond stayed him briefly, taking the stack and glancing through it.

After a moment, he nodded and handed them back. “Good choices, from what I can see. I’m glad you’re taking action on this. Saves me having to hound Dr. Jackson. Keep me apprised.”

Absently, Jack saluted and left, his mind already on travel orders for the four people outside the SGC whom he wanted to talk to. He stopped at Lt. Schafer’s desk and gave her the names. Taking them down, she smiled and said she’d send him details about when they would be at the Academy in Colorado Springs so he could go interview them.

In the meantime, he read carefully through the six personnel files he’d collected. Afterwards, he checked the schedules of the two who were on base and sent for Lt. Hicks. It only took about ten minutes for him to be certain that she wouldn’t do. Her tone when she spoke of Daniel was too reverential for his tastes. He couldn’t picture her being sufficiently assertive with the archeologist. Lt. Graves wasn’t reverential, but he was even less suitable. He misunderstood Jack’s intentions completely, telling him, “Sure, colonel, I could get those archeologists whipped into shape in no time.”

Reminding himself that he wasn’t permitted to punish people for actions they hadn’t taken, Jack sent Graves back to his post almost instantly after that remark. He hoped that the others, who would be arriving at various points on Monday, would be better.

* * *

Daniel looked up as his computer alerted him to the fact that it was quarter to six. Getting up, he started packing a briefcase. If Jack was going to insist that they go home at six on a Friday, Daniel was going to take some of his less high security projects home with him so he could try and catch up. He’d had plentiful time off, now he wanted to work. It was odd coming back on a Thursday in a week that everyone was determined would end on Friday.

As he fitted things into the briefcase, he reflected that they’d probably do a lot of movie watching, and he could work then.

Jack showed up on the dot of six o’clock, but he looked askance at Daniel’s bulging briefcase. “You’re not supposed to take the contents of your office home with you, Daniel,” he said in a mock-serious voice. “That’s why you have your own little space, so you can leave things here.”

Rolling his eyes, Daniel shrugged the strap more firmly onto his shoulder. “It’s just a couple of low key projects,” he said.

Jack grinned and walked towards him. “Well, then, Daniel, if they’re that low key, then you don’t need to take them home,” he said, taking the briefcase from him.

“Jack!” Daniel exclaimed, outraged as the man calmly set the briefcase on the desk and took his arm as if to guide him from the room.

“What?” Jack asked. “You got anything but work stashed in there? A novel perhaps, or a book of crossword puzzles?”

“No, but --”

“Then forget about it,” Jack said firmly. “I’ve got something else for you to look at, something of a treat.”

“What?” Daniel asked suspiciously.

Jack grinned and waved a large manila envelope at him. “You don’t get your treat unless you leave the briefcase here.”

“Jack . . .” Daniel said warningly, but his commanding officer just raised his eyebrows, wiggled the envelope and met Daniel’s eyes unrepentantly. Their eyes locked in a silent contest of wills, but then Daniel sighed. If he took work home and Jack told Janet, he’d get in trouble anyway. Why couldn’t anyone accept that he needed to work? “Fine,” he said resignedly. “Let’s go. How’s Sam getting home?”

“Fraiser took her over an hour ago, with Teal’c. Evidently the doc wanted to make sure Teal’c knew everything he was supposed to do.” Daniel nodded. “He’ll be staying the weekend and if he needs anything he’s to call us, so we need to stay pretty close to home so we’re available.”

Daniel glanced at his briefcase, thinking that if they were staying ‘close to home’ he’d have the time to do some work, but he just said, “Right.”

“So, what do you want for dinner tonight, Dannyboy?” Jack asked.

Daniel turned a glower on his friend, who was still grinning. “Jack?”

“Yes, Dannyboy?”

“I hate it when you call me that.”

“Call you what?” Jack asked, his grin broadening.

“Did you know you’re a jerk?” Daniel asked him, turning towards the door.

“Why, yes,” Jack replied. “Thanks for noticing.”

They changed, signed out and went out to Jack’s truck. “Okay, I didn’t bring the briefcase. What’s in the envelope?”

“Not till we get home,” Jack said

“Jaaack?”

“Daniel,” Jack replied, giving him a disingenuous look and tucking the envelope behind the seat of the truck. Daniel sighed defeat and climbed in. Grinning from ear to ear, Jack said, “So, you never answered. What do you want for dinner?”

“I don’t know,” Daniel said. “Stir fry?”

“Can do.”

Jack drove and Daniel watched the familiar scenery go by. After they’d been moving for about a half hour, he leaned slightly to the side and rested his arm along the back of the seat. Very slowly, very surreptitiously, began to slide his arm down behind the seat of the truck. A stinging slap on his shoulder told him that Jack was paying closer attention than he’d thought.

Withdrawing his arm, he rubbed his shoulder. “Come on, Jack,” he said. “What is it?”

They were stopped at a light and Jack had turned to face him. “Quit it,” he said.

“Quit what?”

“That ‘cute little boy that always gets his way’ thing you do that makes half the women on base roll over and do your bidding.”

Utterly baffled, Daniel said, “What are you talking about?”

“You know,” Jack replied. “That look -- the one that makes people want to just -- that look, there!” Jack pointed at him. Daniel knit his brows. A honk from behind them reminded Jack suddenly of the need to pay attention to the world around them. Pulling forward, Jack said, “And looking confused just makes it more effective.”

Daniel’s jaw dropped. “I don’t understand,” he said, shifting in his seat uncomfortably.

* * *

“It’s just . . .” Jack trailed off, noting the body language. “Hell, Daniel, you’re easy,” he said.

“What?”

“Just yanking your chain.”

Daniel’s posture relaxed a bit. “Great, Jack, thanks.”

“Hey, you leave yourself wide open to it, Dannyboy.”

Daniel rolled his eyes and returned to silent contemplation of the scenery, and Jack bit his lip. The trouble was, he wasn’t yanking Daniel’s chain, and he hadn’t realized just how completely clueless Daniel really was about his effect on people. Even Aris Boch, the ‘best bounty hunter in the galaxy’ hadn’t been completely immune to Daniel’s little boy lost air. A uneasy grin twitched Jack’s lips. Nor had he been immune to the desire to yank Dannyboy’s chain. Occasionally Jack noted similarities between himself and Boch that unsettled him.

They got back to the house and Jack pulled the envelope out from behind the seat. As they walked up toward the front door, Daniel held out his hand for the packet. “After dinner,” Jack said.

“What?”

“After dinner. I want you to eat, not sort through papers. You can have it after we eat.”

“That’s not fair, Jack,” Daniel protested. “You didn’t say anything about that earlier.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “It’s not fair?” he repeated. “What do you mean, it’s not fair?”

“You keep changing the rules.”

“The rules?” Jack unlocked the door and stepped back to let Daniel in. “I distinctly remember you being in your early thirties.”

“So?” Daniel headed towards the kitchen and Jack followed him.

“So you’re sounding remarkably like a nine-year-old.”

“I’m not the one playing keep away,” Daniel retorted.

“Touché,” Jack said, dropping the envelope on the counter and putting his keys on top of it. “Now, dinner shouldn’t take long. I’ve already got the veggies cut up. Start the rice, would you? And set the table.”

They pottered amiably in the kitchen, Jack keeping a close eye on the envelope, thereby stoking Daniel’s anticipation up to a high level. Tormenting Daniel could be so much fun. He took the envelope to the table, putting it on the chair next to his, out of sight but clearly not out of mind despite the fact that Daniel joined in the steady stream of conversation he kept up.

When Daniel had finished his meal, Jack picked up the envelope and handed it across to him, picking up the plates and heading off into the kitchen.

“Coffee?” he called.

“Sure, thanks,” Daniel replied. “Hey, this is the report on M3T--” Jack grinned as the archeologist broke off. Then he heard footsteps and turned to see Daniel coming into the kitchen, the new photographs clutched in his hand.

“Where did these come from?”

“What?” Jack asked innocently.

“These photos weren’t with the file before,” Daniel said. “When were they taken?”

“A little over a week ago,” Jack said. “Sam, Teal’c and I went and checked the place out. Kind of a pretty place. If you look further in the papers, you’ll find our reports.”

Daniel looked down at the photos in his hand and walked back out of the kitchen without looking up. Jack got the dishes rinsed and put in the dishwasher, then went back into the dining room where Daniel had papers spread out across the table. He was clearly attempting to put the pictures into proper perspective.

“There’s not enough overlap,” Daniel groused, and Jack grinned. “Damn it, Jack, I . . . this . . . okay, this is clearly where the bowl was . . . but I can’t make out any details of the items around it.” He was leaning close to the table. “Was there anything else that you saw? I mean, you didn’t just go to the cache, take some photos and then come back, did you?”

“Actually, that’s more or less what we did,” Jack said. “Teal’c and I did a little scouting to make sure there weren’t any surprises in store for us when we go back.”

“I see.” Daniel leaned closer to the table, eyes on one of the pictures. Jack put the coffee in a bare spot on the table and sat down in one of the chairs. “Did you find anything interesting?”

“Not really. All that’s there is animal life.” Jack went on to describe the little they’d found.

When he was done, Daniel nodded slowly, never taking his eyes off the photos. “Land piranhas, eh? Guess we’ll want to stay in groups of two or more.”

“That was my thought,” Jack agreed.

Daniel was quiet again for a time, rearranging the photos and making little notations in the white spaces at the edges. He started comparing Camden’s dark and grainy shots against Sam’s and filling in what blank spots he could in Sam’s overview of the site. Jack went and grabbed the personnel files for his remaining four candidates. There was just enough space at the opposite end of the table from where Daniel was working for an open file. Jack pulled up a second chair to use as a shelf and sat down with the first in his stack, jotting down specific questions and points to cover with each of them in addition to the obvious.

He’d started on the third file when Daniel spoke. “So . . .” he murmured. Jack looked up to find the archeologist standing, hands on his hips, staring down at the two-dimensional mock up of the cache site that he’d created.

“So?”

Daniel tilted his head, pulling up an aerial view of the island taken by the UAV. “So the island is tiny, rocky and shows no signs of human habitation?”

“Yup,” Jack said, leaning forward to look at the array of photos. It was impressive, given that Daniel had never actually seen the site.

“And, according to the SG-7 report, the cache itself is about a quarter mile off from the gate?”

“Just about,” Jack said.

Daniel nodded. “Look here,” he said, walking over and dropping the aerial photograph on top of Lt. Phillips’ file. “That’s the stargate. Where would you say the cache was?”

Jack squinted down at the image. Reaching out a finger, he pointed.

“Hmmm . . .” Daniel gazed thoughtfully down at it. “Okay, now I’ve got a series of questions that you may or may not know the answers to.”

“Try me.”

“First, are there any other cave structures on the island?”

Jack nodded. “Definitely,” he said.

Daniel reached out and pulled the journal that Jack had specifically included in the packet towards him. “Thanks, by the way. I’ll need this.” He flipped it open and froze, staring at the first page, eyes wide. There was an absence of displayed emotion as he took in what was written there, a stillness to him that said he was very focused on what he was reading. After a moment, he swallowed, cleared his throat and said, “Yes, Mother.”

Jack grinned. He’d written a brief inscription on the first page of the journal, just to remind Daniel that people cared. He seemed to need a lot of reminding, sometimes. Nothing overly emotional, neither of them was the type to cope with that, Daniel less so than him, oddly enough. Just a simple admonition: ‘Hey, space monkey, just try remember to eat and sleep in amongst the drooling over artifacts. Okay? Jack.’ The archeologist was still looking at the page, and Jack decided that the moment had gone on long enough.

“So, you were asking questions you didn’t think I could answer. What next?”

Daniel looked up, then sat down, putting the journal back on the table and flipping to the second page. He made a couple of notations, then cleared his throat again. “Okay,” he said. “Second, were the other cave structures comparable in size, smaller or larger?”

Jack thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I couldn’t say, really. I didn’t do much spelunking, just went past the openings.”

Making another note, Daniel said, “Right. SG-7's report doesn’t address that either. We may have to look . . .” Daniel finished scribbling, then looked up. “Third, were there other sizable caves in that general direction from the stargate, or were there any visible from the gate itself?”

“Sizable I couldn’t say,” Jack said. “But there are one or two in the vicinity, but nothing really visible at the gate. Why are you asking?”

Daniel pursed his lips. “Well, this is looking very intriguing, that’s all.” Jack raised an eyebrow and Daniel grinned. “Okay, look, it’s not very close to the shoreline, not that anything on that island’s exactly ‘far’ from anything else, but still . . .” He trailed off, then shook his head. “It is conceivable that some portion of the planet has a pre-industrial civilization with technology that’s still below detectable levels.” Jack nodded. “There are islands on Earth that are out in the middle of nowhere, it is possible.” Jack nodded. “So it’s possible that someone from a ship elected to hide their treasure trove on this island, intending to come back for it later.”

“Yeah, so? Is that likely?”

Daniel shook his head. “I don’t think so. I can’t be certain, though, until we go there and make the proper checks, but I think it’s much more likely that this cache was created by people who came through the stargate.” Daniel grinned excitedly up at him. “It could all be from one source, like the burials of gold and silver that marked people’s attempts to keep their valuables from Viking raids. They hid it and then were never able to retrieve it for some reason.” Daniel’s eyes were glinting. “On the other hand, it could be much more diverse than that. Imagine, if you were looting multiple planets and cultures, you’d need someplace to stash all the plunder. Someplace that people who might be tempted to follow you couldn’t connect to you directly, so not your home or your home planet. Additionally, you would want to have someplace that wouldn’t be easily located, so that if you had to go on the run, you’d still have access to your assets.”

Jack nodded. “I see all that, but why are you so jazzed about it?”

“Don’t you see, Jack? There could be samples of just about anything in there.” Daniel shook his head again. “You could be right, assuming this isn’t the local equivalent of Long John Silver’s buried treasure, we could easily have struck a source of incredible knowledge about the Goa’uld, the Tok’ra, anyone the looters might have stolen from.”

“Like the Tollans?” Jack said, grinning.

Daniel gave him a hopeful shrug. “Or it could be pots and relics from a hundred different cultures, none of which knows any more than we do about the Goa’uld.”

Jack glowered at the archeologist. “Quit it. No raining on my parade.”

Daniel cocked an eyebrow and gave him a sideways grin that held a little perplexity. “Jack, this is a purely archeological mission. Why are you so . . . I don’t know . . . gung ho about it?”

“It happens,” Jack said, shrugging. “I confess, if it’s pirate treasure . . .” He paused, then laughed at himself. “I was about it say I’d be disappointed, but actually it would be pretty cool to find pirate treasure.”

Daniel smiled, then he pulled out one of the pictures of the bowl. “Doesn’t look much like pirate treasure, does it?’

“No, I’ve got to say it doesn’t,” Jack said.

“I wish we could go tomorrow,” Daniel said.

“With Carter stuck at home in bed?” Jack asked. “That hardly seems fair.”

Daniel chuckled and made a few notes. “I’m going to have to train one of you to take better pictures one of these days,” he said.

Jack gave Daniel a mocking offended look. “Carter will be hurt that you don’t like the photos she took just for you.”

“Right,” Daniel said. “Sam knows me better than that.” He stretched. “It can’t possibly be as late as it feels.”

Jack found himself yawning and realized that he, unlike Daniel, hadn’t taken a nap during the day. “I’m thinking that it might be bedtime,” he said.

Daniel nodded. “I’m thinking you might be right.” He started gathering up the pictures. Jack made to help him, but Daniel shook his head. “I can get it. You’ll just put them in the wrong order.”

“Fine, Dr. Jackson,” Jack said, rolling his eyes. “I’ll go take a shower, then.”

He was halfway out the door when the quiet voice from behind him made him stop. “Thanks, Jack.”

He turned and tilted his head. “What for, Daniel?”

“For the journal, for the pictures.” Daniel wasn’t looking at him, he was continuing to gather things up. “For all of it.”

Jack walked over to him and tousled his hair. “That’s what friends are for, Dannyboy.” He let his hand slip down to the back of Daniel’s neck and gave a quick squeeze. “Good night, Daniel.”


	35. Chapter 35

“Rise and shine!”

Daniel sat up at the sound of Jack’s voice, blinking in the sunlight that streamed into the room from the window. Monday morning and Jack sounded disgustingly cheerful. Though he had to admit, this had been a good weekend. Apart from a some nasty dreams on Saturday night that hadn’t even woken him, he’d slept the nights though without any problems. He sighed with relief. That had to be a good sign. No alcohol needed, no nightmares waking him in the middle of the night . . .

He’d spent the weekend going over Sam’s photos of M3T-33H with a fine toothed comb, learning everything he could from them. Sam herself was being taken very good care of by Teal’c, who called twice for them to get groceries or medicine. She was feeling better, but Janet had insisted she stay home until Tuesday at the earliest.

He got a shower and went downstairs to find breakfast ready. Grinning, he sat down in front of a steaming omelet with hashed browns and diced apples on the side. Giving Jack a sidelong look from under his eyelashes, he said, “You know, Jack, you’d make someone a great wife.”

Eyebrows raised, the other man walked around behind him, carrying the skillet toward the sink. A second later, he gave the back of Daniel’s head a friendly shove. “Nope, not pretty enough.” Daniel chuckled. “Now on that score, you’d be just about perfect.”

Daniel’s head came up with a snap and he turned to Jack, astonished. “Are you saying that I’m _pretty?”_ he demanded.

Jack shrugged. “So I’m told,” he said. “I don’t see it, but then, I’m a guy.”

“Who said I . . . PRETTY?”

Jack laughed. “Actually, the words used were ‘gorgeous’ and ‘cute,’ but it comes to the same thing, I think.” His eyes narrowed with thought. “Actually, I’m reasonably certain I have actually heard the word ‘pretty’ used in reference to you.”

Daniel flushed, and glared up at his commander. “Yeah, right,” he said, wondering if Jack was pulling his leg. He decided to ignore it. “So, what’s on your schedule today?”

“Got some meetings over at the academy,” Jack said. “But I should be back by two or thereabouts.”

“What kind of meetings? Or shouldn’t I ask?”

Jack shrugged. “Personnel. Nothing real exciting.”

Daniel sighed. He knew how little Jack liked dealing with personnel issues. “I hope it doesn’t take too long,” he said.

Jack gave him an odd, amused look. “Me, too, but I have a feeling it’s not going to be dealt with quickly. It’s kind of a tough problem.” After that, Jack disappeared upstairs to finish getting ready, and Daniel got the rest of his things packed back up for work, reveling in the notion of a day without babysitters. Not that he wanted Sam to be so sick she needed Teal’c’s help to take care of herself, or that he wanted Jack to be stuck with some stupid personnel problem all day, but it was nice to think that he could choose his own lunchtime.

When they got to the mountain, Jack headed straight for the general’s office and Daniel went upstairs and got to work, feeling more rested and closer to normal than he had since P2X-416 and Rigar’s attack.

Which reminded him . . . he needed to find some time to see Nyan today. He kept forgetting the Bedrosian archeologist, and he didn’t know why. Firing up his computer, he checked his e-mail and found another request from the paymaster for him to discover the man’s job classification. There was also an e-mail from Colonel Miller explaining what he needed from those two files. It didn’t seem urgent, so he sent back a reply asking if early next week was soon enough. Miller replied almost instantly saying that would be fine.

Then he picked up the phone and gave Robert a call, arranging an appointment with Nyan at around ten a.m. He got a few things together and made a list of questions to ask him about his education. There was an odd discomfort in his gut as he contemplated Bedrosian culture, but he banished it. Nyan was just as much of a sample of the type of person produced by Bedrosia as Rigar was, so the culture couldn’t be all bad.

With that done, he took a deep swallow of coffee and set to work translating something that looked like it might have profound implications for the Tok’ra.

* * *

Jack made three stops in the mountain before heading out. He checked in with the general to let him know how things were progressing in the quest for an administrative staff for the archeology department, he dropped by the infirmary to see if Fraiser knew anything about how Sam was and to let her know that Daniel seemed to be doing better, then he swung by Lou Feretti’s office.

“Good morning, Lou,” he said, leaning against the doorframe, arms folded.

“Colonel,” Feretti said, smiling up at him. “How’s Dr. Jackson?”

“Great,” Jack said. “But I’ve got to go off base for most of the day, so I was wondering if you could do me a favor.”

“Sure. What?”

“Would you please make sure he stops for lunch around noon? Just go drag him off to the commissary.”

“You do know you’re a mother hen, don’t you, Jack?” Feretti said, looking amused.

“You got a problem with that?” Jack asked.

“Well, seeing as it’s Dr. Jackson, no, I guess not,” the other man said, grinning. “He’s kind of not so good about taking care of himself, is he?”

“Not so’s you’d notice,” Jack said. “Just drag him off to lunch, okay?”

“Sure, colonel,” Feretti replied.

Satisfied, Jack went and signed out again, heading out to the academy. His first appointment would be showing up shortly, and he didn’t want to be late. Four people, two men and two women. They all had good reputations for working well with civilians, which was high on his list of requirements, but there were other things that would be necessary.

The first one who showed up was Lt. Greg Bascomb, who was competent, spoke well, seemed plenty assertive, but had all the personality of a feather duster. Jack tossed him on the maybe stack, just in case no one better showed up. He’d do in a pinch, but . . .

Lt. Andromeda Peterson would intimidate the hell out of Daniel. She’d roll over him like a ton of bricks and Daniel wouldn’t even know what hit him, and all the while she’d have the best of intentions. Jack wasn’t looking for someone to dominate Daniel quite that completely, just someone to watch after him and manage the interface between the archeology department and the rest of the base.

Lt. Megan Pearce had all the right signs. She was able to participate in Jack’s humor, didn’t seem to be quite the ball buster Peterson was, but then he mentioned Dr. Daniel Jackson as the person she’d be working most closely with. Apparently she’d heard of him.

“That lunatic?” she exclaimed. Jack’s eyebrows went up and he watched her get her reaction under control. “I mean, he’s the one who’s so convinced that the Egyptian pyramids were built by aliens.”

“Yes, that’s Daniel,” Jack said neutrally. “Though the fact that he’s working in a top secret government project . . .”

She blinked. “Yes, I quite see your point, sir,” she said. “But he’s the civilian with whom I’d be working?” she asked.

“He’s the head of the department you’d be the administrative director for.”

She gazed at him thoughtfully for a moment. “This is why you had so many questions regarding how comfortable I am working with civilians, isn’t it?”

“Yes. It’s important, because most of the department consists of civilians with one or two military folks.”

“Civilians,” she said, pursing her lips. “Civilians come in all shapes and sizes, sir, and different varieties. Would I be right in guessing that this is a department full of academics?” He nodded. “Well, sir, then let me tell you my honest opinion. I can do the job you need done, and I would probably be fairly good at it, but I don’t think it would make any of us happy. My work has been primarily with the business community, I don’t work well with academics. Further, I don’t know how comfortable he would be with me.” She pursed her lips again. “What exactly would I be doing for him directly? You made it clear that the job has two parts, one, the administrative head of a department, and two, the personal assistant of the head of that department.”

Jack sighed. “Daniel is the absent-minded genius type,” he said. “He needs someone to take up some of the more mundane tasks like transcription and filing that aren’t a sensible use of his time. But there are some problems inherent in that. He tends to do everything himself because he knows how he wants things done and he knows he can do it right. He tends to work too hard and too long, and I need someone who is capable of firmly reminding him that it’s time for lunch or time for meetings or the like.”

“So he needs a combination assistant and mother?”

“Not really a mother,” Jack protested. “More like a concerned older sibling. He doesn’t need babied, just gently bullied into taking care of himself.”

She nodded. “I see. By transcribe, what do you mean exactly? What sort of transcription?”

“Daniel is a linguist, an archeologist and an anthropologist. One of the biggest tasks he has is translation, however, because there are very few people who can translate the languages we come across most frequently and need most urgently. It’s not constant work, however, because he spends a fair amount of time in the field, but, as I say, we need a military liaison because the other military folks at the SGC tend to . . . well, they don’t all of them work too well with civilians.”

She smiled. “It’s an art. They take us and make us stop being civilians, and some of us lose the knack of dealing with normal people.” Growing serious again, she said, “To be perfectly frank, I am confident that I could do the job you’re asking of me, but I don’t think your Dr. Jackson would be happy with me. I would find his need to be reminded to take care of himself irritating, and he would be able to tell, I’m certain. I’m also not interested in anthropology or archeology, and my skill with foreign languages isn’t outstanding. While none of those things are required in administrative staff, they can be of enormous benefit when working with something as sensitive as transcription of translations, or typing up notes from archeological expeditions.”

“I see,” he said, sighing and flipping through her file. An idea began to play at the back of his mind, though, and he looked up. Before he could speak, though, she did.

“Sir, I noticed Lt. Tony Sciaparelli on the plane with me when I came over. Is he also up for this position?”

“Yes, he is,” Jack said. “Why?”

This smile was much more genuine. It lit up her eyes. “Then I think you’ll be very happy with him. Tony’s fairly young, but he’s like everybody’s favorite older brother.” Jack raised a dubious eyebrow. He remembered a few of his friends’ older brothers. “Favorite, I said,” she emphasized. “Not the kind that bullies or locks people in closets. He looks out for people, he’s smart, cute, speaks three languages and likes history.”

“Okay,” Jack said, grinning, and liking her all the more. “Well, he’s next on my list, but before I send for him, I’ve got a couple of questions for you.”

“Of course, Colonel O’Neill.”

“I accept your assessment that this isn’t the position for you, but I have another hole to fill, and I think you might just plug it up.” She won more points by looking intrigued rather than offended. “But it requires field work, which your file doesn’t show much sign of.”

She nodded. “I’ve never had much field experience, sir, but I’m willing to try anything.”

He looked at her thoughtfully for a few moments, then said, “There are a few things you should know before giving an answer, Pearce.” She tilted her head. “Everything I am about to tell you is in strictest confidence. You have the security clearance to know about it and to work on this project, or you wouldn’t be here, but you must understand that whether you decide to join us or not, this information is at the highest level of secrecy.”

“Of course, sir,” she said, her eyes afire with curiosity.

“Dr. Jackson was right.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“About the pyramids.”

Her jaw dropped. “Aliens built the pyramids?”

“Well, not precisely. They were built by human slaves by the direction of aliens.” Jack paused, considering. “Most likely at the direction of Ra.”

“Ra?” she repeated.

“An alien we were forced to kill.”

“But . . . do you mean you personally?”

He shrugged. “Me and Dr. Jackson, actually,” he said, watching her closely.

“Dr. Jackson?” she exclaimed. “But he’s . . . he’s an archeologist. He kills aliens?”

“No, generally he’s the one trying to get us to make friends, to talk to people and make treaties. Sometimes the other guys just don’t cooperate.”

“But he’s an archeologist,” she said again.

“And he’s got a fine score on the shooting range, he’s damned good at hand to hand for a civilian, and he runs faster than anyone on my team.” She was shaking her head. “He’s committed to the job we do, to fighting the war we’re waging.”

“War?” she repeated. He nodded, smiling tightly at her. “What war?”

“Long story, and one that will have to wait until you join the program officially.”

She nodded, biting her lip. “I have a question.” He raised an eyebrow. “You said this Ra had the pyramids built. I thought they were built thousands of years ago?”

“Yes,” he said. “These aliens have the ability to prolong their lives over . . . you know, I have no idea how long they can live.” He shrugged. “They’re parasitical. They burrow their way into human bodies, take over and set up housekeeping. Ra was in the body of a teenaged boy he took over in . . . well, sometime B.C. is all I can guess at. They can maintain the human body over millennia.”

Pearce shuddered. “That’s just the littlest bit creepy,” she said.

“Nope,” he replied, and her eyes widened. “It’s a whole lot more than a little bit creepy. You haven’t met any of them, yet.”

“I see. What would you want me to be doing?”

“I have a spot open on SG-9, which is our diplomatic team, that I think you might fill very well.”

“I’m not a diplomat,” she said, eyes dark with thought.

“No, but you could be,” he replied. He was about to elaborate when her eyes lightened and she gave him a penetrating look.

“You need someone who’s good with civilians, someone who’s comfortable in a business environment.”

He gave her a grin. “Good job, lieutenant, that’s exactly what I was thinking. Most of our guys are very politically astute, but we do business with our allies, and it might be handy to have someone along who understands the business mindset. You would have to be flexible enough to grasp that other cultures operate differently, though. Do you think you can do that?”

She looked thoughtful. “Would I be meeting them blind? I mean, would we have intelligence or . . . and who are we dealing with? Aliens?”

“Some. Some humans, some humanoids, some who are distinctly alien in physiology and culture.” Thinking back to recent missions, he sighed. “Some of it’s the same old stuff we see here on Earth, just in different packaging.”

She blinked. “On Earth. This is going to take some getting used to.”

“It does,” he agreed. “But, no, you wouldn’t be meeting with them blind. SG-9 isn’t a first contact team. You’d most likely be working on intelligence from Dr. Jackson and his associates, actually. Daniel’s the cultural observer on the primary first contact team, SG-1.”

“I see.” She started to nod, but then looked alarmed. “Wait, Lt. Sciaparelli isn’t a field officer. He would be, but -- you do know about his injury, don’t you?”

Jack nodded. “He would be strictly base personnel, or he might go along on one of Daniel’s staid little archeological digs, on a cleared, safe site. Nevertheless, whoever becomes Daniel’s assistant will have a critically important job. He’ll be watching over and assisting the most vital person in the whole program, which, given the nature of this project, means the most important person in the entire U.S. Military, hell, probably the most important person in the world right now.”

To her credit, she didn’t repeat the tired old saw that Daniel was an archeologist. Her eyes just widened and she nodded.

“So, does it sound appealing to you? I won’t claim it’s not dangerous. We have a higher mortality rate than most military operations, but you would be trained and, as I said, not going out on first contact missions.”

“It sounds incredible, sir,” Pearce said. “Could I have a little time to think it over?”

“Of course, lieutenant,” Jack said, standing up. “I have another meeting, and we never want to rush people into these sorts of decisions.”

“Thank you, sir. Would it be possible to talk to someone, if I have other questions later?”

He handed her one of his cards. “I’ll let the switchboard know they might be receiving a call from you. And I’ll be in touch in a couple of weeks.”

She nodded and shook his hand, then saluted and went out. Jack picked up Sciaparelli’s file. Three languages. Chinese, Arabic and Latin. It made for an interesting combination, one that would probably have Daniel babbling in excitement, if Jack knew his archeologist.

He really hoped that Pearce was right in her assessment. He didn’t want to have to go through another round of interviews.


	36. Chapter 36

Daniel wrapped up his work on the Tok’ra translation at five to ten and made sure his notes regarding what he wanted to talk to Nyan about were nearby.  Robert brought the Bedrosian archeologist into Daniel’s office at just past ten, nodded and left.

“Dr. Jackson,” Nyan said immediately, rushing forward and shaking his hand.  “I am so terribly sorry about what happened to you.”

Daniel froze, staring at him.  Of course he would have heard.  How could he not?  Daniel hadn’t put two and two together yet on that, though, and he certainly hadn’t considered that the man might feel guilty.

“It’s not your fault, Nyan,” Daniel said after a moment.  “But that’s not what we’re --”

“It is,” he exclaimed.  “I should have warned you, your people, I should have realized what would have happened when Mallin ran off like she did.  I should . . .”

Daniel pulled his hand out of Nyan’s grip, feeling decidedly unsettled.  The trouble was, some portion of his mind agreed with Nyan, but that was the last thing he could say to the man.  “Mistakes happen, Nyan,” he said.  He felt intensely guilty that any part of him blamed Nyan, but . . .

“I just . . . when I heard I was so very angry that another citizen of my country could do such a thing, I didn’t know what to say, what to do.”

Daniel closed his eyes.  He had no way of knowing just what Nyan had heard, either.  No one had told him the stories that were going around, but he knew that the actual details hadn’t been spread.  That meant that rumor had the run of things, and how much the wretched event had been exaggerated was anyone’s guess, since Daniel doubted he would be able to get anyone to tell him what they’d heard.  He definitely didn’t want to talk to anybody about it, so setting them straight wasn’t an option either.  Sighing, he said, “Nyan, I don’t really want to talk about it.  I need to find out  some details about your life, so we can incorporate you into our operation.”

“You are a truly great human being,” Nyan said.  “To be able to deal with such a trauma and go on with things so quickly is deeply impressive to me.”

Well, that was one thing Daniel could guess about their culture.  They were obviously much more open on certain topics than American culture.  But he was at his limit, a limit he hadn’t realized was quite so short ten minutes before.  He raised a hand and brought Nyan’s words to a halt.  “I’m sorry, Nyan, I’m . . . I’m not dealing with this as well as you think I am.”  He stood up, picking up his notes.  “Let’s take you back to Robert’s office.”

Nyan remained silent on the trip, and Robert looked startled.  Daniel gestured for him to come out into the hall.  He did and they shut Nyan inside.  “I -- Robert, could you handle this for me?  I’m having a bit of trouble.”

“What is it, Daniel?” Robert asked, looking worried.

“He wants to apologize, and I can’t take it right now, that’s all.  I’ve got some questions here, and you should be able to get an idea of his understanding of our version of archeology.  I trust that you can give me a reasonable assessment of his abilities, okay?”

“Sure, Daniel.  Whatever you need.”

He could feel Robert’s eyes on him as he went down the hall, but he tried to ignore the sensation.  He went back to his office and started work on his translations again.  The Tok’ra thing was being very finicky, and he wanted to get it right.

It wasn’t easy to concentrate again.  Shudders kept running through him, and he kept having flashes of the events in the tent on P2X-416.  He knew that Nyan had only been trying to apologize, to express remorse and sympathy, but Daniel desperately wished he’d kept his mouth shut.  He’d thought, until Nyan came in, that he was largely better, but this just showed how far from being his normal self he still was.

Finally, he went and sat down in front of the couch and took a few deep breaths to center himself and try to calm down.  Fifteen or so minutes of meditation got him to the point of being able to return to his desk and work again.

After he’d been working a while, he heard someone come in behind him.  Focused on a particularly difficult word, he didn’t immediately look up, but the man walked right up behind him.  Being bent over his desk with someone directly behind him abruptly felt very dangerous.  “Hello,” he said, turning and slipping off his stool at the same time.

“Dr. Jackson,” the man said, smiling.

“Major Grady,” Daniel replied, belatedly putting a name to the face.  He blinked up at the man who seemed extremely close, reflecting that the major must have an incredibly tiny personal space bubble.  Or maybe Daniel was just being overly sensitive.  “Can I help you?” he said, slipping by the man to pour himself a fresh cup of coffee.

“I’m just here to check on the translations I dropped off yesterday.”  Grady took a step towards him as he spoke, and Daniel resisted the urge to step back himself.  Nyan’s inadvertent faux pas had certainly turned Daniel’s paranoia up to full strength.

Daniel blinked for a moment, then put the information together.  “The stuff for SG-6?  I’ve been in communication with Colonel Miller.  I’ll have it for him on Monday.”

“Monday?”

Daniel nodded.  “There are a few urgent jobs to be done first, and Colonel Miller said he didn’t need the information until Tuesday at any rate.”

Grady seemed a little taken aback and maybe a little annoyed, but Daniel figured he was reading too much into the man’s reaction.

There was a rapping on the door frame, then Lou Feretti stuck his head around.  “Daniel, it’s time for lunch.”

“What?”  Daniel looked at the leader of SG-2 with startlement.  “Did Jack put you up to this?”

“Daniel, you need to eat,” Lou said.  “And, yeah, Jack did stop by my office this morning.  What of it?”

Daniel sighed.  “Major Grady, is there anything else I can help you with?”

Grady shook his head.  “No, Dr. Jackson.  Thank you.”  Nodding very correctly to Feretti, he left.

“What did he want?” Lou asked.

“He was looking for a translation for SG-6,” Daniel said.  “One that’s not due till Monday, though he probably didn’t know that until I told him.”  He glanced over at his desk.  “I suppose you’re not taking ‘no’ for answer, are you?”

“I want to be able to breathe through my nose after the next time I talk to Jack.”

“Very understandable,” Daniel said.  “Let’s go.”

* * *

Jack’s first impression of Sciaparelli was that he belonged on a soap opera.  Despite his claim to Daniel, he was fully capable of noticing the relative attractiveness of other men, and Sciaparelli was incredibly good-looking.  Blonder than Daniel, with brilliant green eyes, tall and well built, he was a recruiting poster come to life.  Apart from the stiffness of his left leg and the limp, that is.  An injury acquired in the line of duty.

Jack reached out and shook his hand.  “Good afternoon, Lt. Sciaparelli,” he said.  “I’m Colonel Jack O’Neill.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir,” the young man said, smiling.  Jack smiled back.  He had found someone that might just distract the ‘vultures,’ as Sam called them, from Daniel.  Sciaparelli’s smile was every bit as sweet and friendly as Daniel’s.

“I’m looking for someone to fill a position in a primarily civilian department of the command I work in,” Jack said.  “Why don’t we start with you telling me a little bit about what you do now.”

Sciaparelli started talking, and Jack listened, taking notes and interjecting questions and wry comments, watching the man’s reaction to the latter very closely.

He was currently working on a base where civilian and military scientists were working closely together on sensitive experiments that -- Jack smiled -- he explained very politely he could divulge no details of.

“Actually, sir, I couldn’t divulge too many details even if I was permitted to,” he said.  “I’m not much of a science whiz.  But most of what I do is administrative in nature, and I have four sergeants under me, keeping the office in order and making sure all right reports and files go to the right places.”  He sighed, and Jack could see he wasn’t entirely satisfied with his current position.

“Well, I have to confess that most of what I’d have you doing in this position is the same sort of thing, but there’s more to it than that.  First, we’ve never had an administrative staff in the department in question, so you’d have to build it from the ground up.  Second, the department almost entirely consists of civilians who work within a command full of soldiers and airmen who are not entirely comfortable working with civilians.  You are already working with scientists, but these are linguists, archeologists, and anthropologists, an entirely different kettle of fish.”  Unless he was imagining things, Sciaparelli was looking a bit more interested.  Something Jack had said must have piqued his curiosity.

“I see, sir,” the lieutenant said.  “Yes, I’d say that archeologists are very different from chemical engineers and physicists.”

“We have those, too,” Jack said, giving him a wry grin.  “It’s quite a mixed command, with lots of soldiers and civilians working together, but what I need most of all is someone who can work with the head of the archeology department.”  Jack watched Sciaparelli digest the concept of a military-run archeology department, then went on.  “He’s a brilliant man, but a bit driven, sometimes a bit too focused.  Quite frankly, he needs someone who is capable of going to him and telling him, respectfully but in no uncertain terms, that he needs to eat or sleep.”

“I see,” Sciaparelli said, smiling shyly.  “Sounds like my uncle.”

“Your uncle?” Jack asked, raising his eyebrows to encourage him to elaborate.

“Yes, sir.  He’s a historian, and when he gets going on his research, he blocks out the world around him.  He’ll sit in his study for hours -- days -- at a time.  He did it at Christmas a couple of years ago when we had it over at their house.  Nana, my grandmother, was not pleased, I can tell you.”

Jack nodded thoughtfully.  “So, how do you handle it when you need to fetch your uncle?” he asked.

“Depends on who’s doing it, I guess.  Aunt Gina just takes plates of food up to him from time to time when he’s working on something important, and she steers him to bed when it’s needed.  Nana went and took him by the ear.”

Jack raised an eyebrow.  “Yes, but how do you yourself deal with it?”

“Usually I can find a way to coax him out.  If all else fails, I wait until he goes to the bathroom and hide what he’s working on.  Then I don’t give it back to him until he’s eaten or given Nana a kiss or whatever it is he’s supposed to do.”  This sounded promising, Jack thought.  “He’s actually quite well known in his field, my uncle, I mean,” Sciaparelli said.  “Dr. Matthew Perkins.”

“I’ve never been a big history buff,” Jack said apologetically.  “One of the other troubles we have is that archeologists are used to making do with what they have, and as civilians in a military organization, they seem to be expecting to get the short end of the stick.”

Jack knew he had his man when he saw the fire in Sciaparelli’s eye.  “Do they, sir?” he asked, seeming a little irritated by the notion.

“Sometimes,” Jack said.

“That’s not right,” Sciaparelli said.  “So what is it you need from me?  Or whoever you assign to this position?”

“Someone who can remind the other military folk on the base that the civilians are just as important to our mission as they are, and sometimes more so.  You’ll probably take some ribbing from your fellows for answering to a civilian, and make no mistake, the head of this department is as civilian as they come.”

“Can you tell me anything else about him?”

Jack nodded.  “Dr. Daniel Jackson,” he said.  “He’s an anthropologist, an archeologist and a linguist, triple-doctorate.”

Sciaparelli blinked a few times.  “How old is he?”

“Thirty-two . . . I think.”  Jack thought for a moment.  “No, thirty-four.”

“He’s been a very busy man,” Sciaparelli observed.  “What exactly does he do?”

“Well, he goes out into the field with my team, SG-1, and --”

“Wait, are you telling me he goes out into the field with soldiers . . . taking the same risks?  I mean, I presume there are risks involved.”

“Oh, yes,” Jack said.  “Actually, he takes more risks than most.  See, SG-1 is a first contact team.”

“First contact with what?”

Jack gazed at him for a moment, then decided on bluntness.  “Aliens.”

Sciaparelli stared at him, eyes wide, jaw slightly open.  Then he closed his mouth, cleared his throat and said, “I’d ask if you were joking, sir, but I can see you’re not.  Aliens?  Scary aliens?”

“Sometimes,” Jack allowed.  “Often, even.  We meet the occasional cute and fluffy, but the point is we’re a first contact team.  We never know what we’re going to face.”

“How do you meet these aliens, sir?” Sciaparelli asked.  “I don’t really understand how it’s possible.  Do they come here?”

“Mostly not,” Jack replied.  “We have a device, a piece of alien technology that was discovered in Egypt in the twenties.  Through the work of a number of scientists, including Dr. Jackson, we managed to make it work.  It’s a much faster way to travel to other planets than a ship would be, and since we don’t have any interstellar ships, it’s the only way we have at this time.”

“I . . . I see,” Sciaparelli said.  Jack could tell that he didn’t understand entirely, but who would?  It was a mind-boggling concept.  “So let me see if I understand you.  Your team uses this device --”

“The stargate,” Jack filled in for him.

“This stargate -- to go to other planets?”

“We do.”

“And even though he goes out with you, there are soldiers who don’t give him the respect due a man who takes the risks of a soldier without the training of one?”

Jack smiled.  “Yes, there are, lieutenant.  It’s one of the things I want to nip in the bud.”

Sciaparelli lifted his chin.  “I’d be delighted to help you, sir.  I only wish I could go out into the field, but with this leg of mine . . .”

“Frankly, we need you on base extremely urgently,” Jack said.  His decision was made.  This man, assuming he and Daniel could get along, was perfect.  “Now, the base isn’t always the safest place to be.  We have had foothold situations and quarantine situations due to illness.  If that happens again . . .”

“I understand, sir.  My current job has similar guarantees. ”

“Good.  Another thing you should understand is that this command has a higher than usual mortality rate.  On base, you would be fairly well protected, but some of the men and women you eat lunch with will be going out on missions, and there’s no knowing what will happen.”

“Right.”  Sciaparelli looked very serious.

“Further, Daniel Jackson, the man you will be working closely with, is a certifiable genius.  He’s so damned smart that he intimidates other smart people.  He speaks twenty-three languages at last count, and that count was taken awhile back.  Right now, he’s doing everything himself, he translates texts, he types it and his notes, puts everything away properly in the file, then delivers the file to its next stop in the line.  I watched him do part of this yesterday, and he wasted a good half hour on these tasks.  He needs someone who can take up the slack in this.  In addition, the department needs clerks, whom you would supervise, to take care of file transfers.  The current system isn’t working, and is winding up with a lot of blame being shifted when files get delivered to the wrong person and temporarily misplaced.”

“And I can guess, from what you’ve said, where the blame tends to land,” Sciaparelli said disapprovingly.

“To deal with this, you may have to be fairly firm with superior officers, and if you have difficulties with that being ineffective, your next in the military chain of command would be me.  The archeology department is an independent part of the operation.”

“You’re not in overall command, are you, sir?” asked Sciaparelli.

“No, I’m not, but I’m second in command.”

“Sir, you’ve begun to talk as if I’ve got the job.  Is that the case?”

Jack looked at the man for a long moment.  “Yes, Sciaparelli, it is.  If you want it.”

“I’m certainly willing to give it a try, sir,” Sciaparelli said.  “Do you think your Dr. Jackson would be comfortable with me?”

“I think so,” Jack said.  “How much wrap up do you need to do at your current post?”

“Not much, my sergeants are well trained, and the project is actually winding down.  They might not even really need me anymore.”

“I’ll have your orders cut immediately.  How long will it take you to get ready to move?”

“Give me three days to wrap everything up, sir, if that’s possible.”

“Not a problem.  You should plan on finding housing in town.  The base has very limited housing, and most of it is dormitory style.”

“What town, sir?”

“Colorado Springs.  In a pinch, I could put you up for a little while, and there are others who would be willing, but we can probably get you some housing lined up pretty quickly.  I have a friend who loves to shop for other people.”

“For apartments?” Sciaparelli asked.

Something occurred to Jack abruptly.  “Oh, I guess I’d better tell you one other thing.  SG-1 has four members, Daniel, me, Major Samantha Carter, who is a PhD in astrophysics, and Teal’c.”

“Teal’c?”

“He’s . . . well, he’s an alien.  A Jaffa to be exact.  He looks basically human, but there are a few differences.  He lives on base, and because he’s on SG-1 and does part time work in linguistics, you’ll probably see him fairly frequently.  Thought you should be prepared.”

“Thank you, sir,” Sciaparelli said, looking slightly stunned.  “When will I meet Dr. Jackson?”

Good question, Jack.  When will he?  “Not until you return,” Jack said.  “I’ll have your orders cut within the hour, and sent to your current superiors.”

“Thank you sir,” Sciaparelli said again.  They rose and shook hands.

“I’ll see you in a few days, then,” Jack said.  That done and settled, he went back out to his truck and headed back to the mountain.  First thing he headed to Hammond’s office to let the general know that not only had he found what he was looking for, he’d also possibly found a replacement for the missing man on Kovacek’s team.  The general was in a meeting, so he headed on to Kovacek’s office.

“Colonel O’Neill,” the man greeted him, standing.  Kovacek had never been easy with him since the Hadante affair, when SG-9 was still trying hard for face time with the Taldor when SG-1 escaped from the prison he was trying to negotiate their way out of.  “Can I help you, sir?”

“Actually, I think I can help you.  I’ve been looking over some personnel files and meeting with a few people to get a position filled, and I think I found someone for SG-9.”

“Really?”

He handed Kovacek the file.  “Her name is Lt. Megan Pearce, and she’s got limited field experience, but she’s been a business liaison for several years now, and she’s interested in working with us.”

Kovacek’s eyes widened at the phrase ‘business liaison,’ and he said, “That’s great, Colonel O’Neill.  Thanks.”

“I’ve got the hard part over with.  She’s in the know about the operation to a limited degree, and she’s going to give it some thought.  I’ll probably have her talk to you if she calls with more questions, though, so the two of you can get one another’s measure.”

“Right sir.  Thank you very much.”

Jack nodded and moved on.  His conversation with Pearce had taken considerably longer than he’d expected, and it was nearly three o’clock.  He stopped by his office, where he found the e-mail from Daniel that explained that Robert Rothman had tested Nyan for his aptitudes and that, using the test results, Daniel had placed him in the pay spectrum.  As second in command, he was on the list of people who received such information.  Jack smiled and went through the rest of his e-mail quickly.  Daniel had delegated a task.  This was a red-letter day, and he wanted to express his pleasure to Daniel in person.


	37. Chapter 37

As he approached Daniel’s office, he hoped Feretti had remembered his request.  Daniel looked up as soon as he came in, and Jack wondered what he was working on.  It was rare that Daniel didn’t keep his focus on his work for at least a couple of seconds when someone came in.  “Jack, hi,” he said, and his eyes were a little more hooded than they’d been this morning.

“You okay?” Jack asked.  Daniel nodded shortly, and Jack decided not to pursue it immediately.  He figured if he gave the archeologist a compliment, it would help his mood some.  “Well, I came by because I wanted to congratulate you on something.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow.  “Congratulate me?” he asked.

“You delegated.  I’m deeply impressed.”

To his surprise, Daniel flushed and looked uncomfortable.  “I didn’t delegate,” he muttered.  “I chickened out.”

Jack looked at the other man, who was not meeting his eyes, and closed the door.  Walking across, he closed the other door and pulled up a stool to the opposite side of Daniel’s table.  “What’s up?”

Daniel shrugged.  “Nothing,” he said.  Jack let the oppressive silence speak for itself, just waiting.

“When Nyan came in today, he . . . he couldn’t stop apologizing.  He feels guilty for what happened to me, however silly that is, and I’d guess that his culture doesn’t have the taboos about . . .”  Daniel flushed darker.  “About talking about things.”

Jack grimaced.  “So you’re not okay?”  Shrugging again, Daniel didn’t speak.  “How do you feel?” Jack asked, realizing that he couldn’t ask leading questions with Daniel.  “And don’t you dare say ‘fine’ because I’m not as stupid as I look.”

Daniel raised his head and gave him a ghost of a wry grin.  “You don’t _look_ stupid, Jack,” he said.

Jack narrowed his eyes.  “Don’t try to distract me, Dannyboy,” he said and Daniel laughed.  “Now, how do you feel?”

The archeologist was silent for a moment.  “Not great, but I’ll be okay,” he said.  “I’m just frustrated.  I felt fine this morning, but after talking to Nyan . . . I kept having -- not flashbacks -- but little recurring flashes of images.  Then Major Grady came in, acting perfectly normally, and I got all creeped out about having him behind me.  I must have looked like an idiot with the way I shifted away from him.  Paranoia is irritating.”

“Grady?” Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.  That man rubbed him the wrong way, and he didn’t like the notion that Daniel had been that uncomfortable in his presence.  Daniel might put it down to paranoia but Jack wasn’t so sure.  “What was he here for?”

“He was looking for the translations he dropped off in my office yesterday.  He was a little overanxious, but I guess he hadn’t talked to Miller about it yet.”

Jack filed it away in his little drawer of observations regarding Grady and shook his head.  “Daniel, some days will be better than others, and you got a pretty hefty reminder of things with Nyan’s behavior.”

“The awful thing is, I’m sure he didn’t intend to upset me.  He probably expected me to . . . I don’t know, feel comforted by it.  It may be common in his culture for men to express comfort and sympathy over that sort of experience, and it’s not like it’s really his fault.  He couldn’t have known what would happen.”

“That’s a matter of opinion,” Jack said.  Nyan had been less than forthcoming about how they’d be received in his world, and his little girlfriend had run off to warn the army.  Jack didn’t blame him, not precisely, but if the man felt guilty, Jack wasn’t about to tell him he was wrong.

“Jack, don’t blame him,” Daniel said, looking strained.  “He couldn’t have known.”

It was clearly a day for not pushing the archeologist, Jack thought.  “Right.”

“There is one thing,” Daniel added.  “I can’t . . . I can’t talk to him about it.  There’s no way.  But I’m sure he’s heard about what happened to me through the grapevine, so who knows what he’s been told actually happened.”

“And . . .”

Daniel turned away and looked down at his work.  “Would you tell him for me?  He’s beating himself black and blue over it, and I think it might help him . . . if he thinks I was savaged or something . . . it might help him to know it wasn’t actually that bad.”

Jack nodded and squeezed Daniel’s shoulder.  “I’ll go do that,” he said, giving Daniel a friendly grin.  Then he went out of the office and, once around the corner, paused to allow himself a moment of anger.  If anything, this was almost worse than if he’d been attacked more brutally.  The sense of violation was still present, the trauma, but because it hadn’t been ‘that bad,’ Daniel felt like he was overreacting, and so continued to second guess and repress his emotions.

Jack headed down to Robert Rothman’s office.  When he got there, he found Rothman alone.  “Where is Nyan?” he asked.

“The paymaster came and carted him away,” Rothman said.  “I think he wanted him to fill out some paperwork.”

Jack headed off to the accounting department where he found Nyan and Major Jenco deep in a conversation regarding the origin of last names.  “So Dr. Jackson’s name means, literally, son of Jack?” Nyan asked as O’Neill walked up.

“Hey, I’m not nearly that old,” Jack protested.

Jenco raised an amused eyebrow at him then turned back to Nyan.  “Yes, so presumably, somewhere in Dr. Jackson’s paternal family line, there is someone who was the son of a man named Jack.”

“This is very interesting.  I suppose that would make me Nyan Garrinson.”

“And . . . let’s see . . . for your mother’s maiden name, what was your mother’s paternal grandfather’s name?”

Jack followed that line in his head and realized that Jenco was asking for Nyan’s great-grandfather’s name.  What the hell was with that?

Nyan blinked, then said, “Drevan.”

“Well, then, by our culture’s naming rules, your mother’s father’s surname would have been Drevanson, which he would have passed on to his daughter until her marriage, so your mother’s maiden name would be Drevanson.”

“I see,” Nyan said, smiling.  “I see very well.  Thank you.  And your people require all these names to function in your culture?”

“More like to function in our bureaucracy,” Jack said.  “Mother’s maiden name, Jenco?”

“For long term survival in our society, he will need to have all the pieces of information that our bureaucracy requires.”

“Does Teal’c have all of this?”

“Teal’c could not function independently on Earth, no matter what his records said.  He is an alien in physiology as well as origin.  Nyan has no such handicaps.”

Jack nodded, trying to imagine Nyan at JC Penney’s with a credit card in hand.  He chuckled.  “How much more do you have to do?” he asked.

“Probably about another two hours,” Jenco said.  “Between the normal paperwork for Social Security, refugee status documents, and the pay forms for the U.S. Air Force, we’ve got a lot to wade through.”

“All right,” Jack said.  “When you’ve finished with him, find me.  I need to meet with him for a little bit.”

“Of course, Colonel O’Neill.”

Jack smiled at Nyan and left the office, heading back to General Hammond, who now had ten minutes free.  “Any news on finding Dr. Jackson an assistant?”

“Done, sir,” Jack said.  “I still need to get the orders cut, but in three days we’ll be welcoming Lt. Anthony M. Sciaparelli to the SGC.”

“Glad to hear it, colonel,” Hammond said.  “Dr. Jackson works too hard.  How did he respond to this news?”

Jack bit his lip and tilted his head.  “He hasn’t yet, sir.  I haven’t mentioned it to him.”

Hammond’s eyebrows rose.  “You are planning on giving him some advance notice, aren’t you, colonel?”

“It didn’t seem like the right moment when I went to see him earlier,” Jack said.  “He’s having some problems today.  I’ll tell him tomorrow, I think, or maybe tonight if he’s feeling a little more easy with things at home.”

“What seems to be the trouble?”

Jack shrugged.  “Difficult to explain, sir.  Nothing too unexpected, just a bad day.  He’s doing fine.”

“Well, colonel, keep me posted.  I particularly want to know how Dr. Jackson reacts to the change in his department.  Make sure he understands that it isn’t a suggestion that there’s any deficiency in him or any of his staff.”

“I will, sir.”

Jack headed back to his office and went over the files of the non-coms he’d had personnel send over.  People skilled in administrative duties and whose previous supervisors had marked as assertive and flexible.  He’d have to meet with them tomorrow, which meant, since most of the names he had at the moment were men and women from the SGC, that he’d have to tell Daniel tonight or risk him finding out through scuttlebutt, which wouldn’t be fair.  There was a limited chance of his discovering it today from one of the two Jack had interviewed yesterday, but Jack thought it was likely that both of them would keep their mouths shut, as he had asked.

Nyan knocked on the open door and Jack looked up.  “Come in, Nyan.  Please, shut the door and take a seat.”

The Bedrosian archeologist followed his instructions very shyly.  “Do you have some task for me, Colonel O’Neill?”

“No, Nyan, I have something we need to discuss,” Jack said.  The man raised his eyebrows and leaned forward, looking very anxious.  “Daniel asked me to talk to you about what happened to him in Rigar’s camp.”  Nyan’s eyes widened and he shifted uneasily.  “This makes me kind of uncomfortable,” Jack said, feeling like an idiot.  This was Daniel’s area, damn it!  “You see, in our culture, there are a lot of taboos about sexuality.”

“Really?  What sorts of taboos?” Nyan asked, looking fascinated.

Hell, the man was an archeologist.  Jack closed his eyes.  “Well, let’s focus on the one you inadvertently stepped on.  I’m sure I can find you someone to talk to about it in more detail later.  Taboos and cultural differences aren’t really my area, and Daniel’s feeling a little unable to deal with this right now.”

Nyan nodded.  “I do not understand what happened earlier.  It was clear that I upset him greatly, but I do not know how.”

“Well, among our people, it isn’t considered . . . when a man is sexually assaulted, that’s about as taboo as you can get, sexually.  People don’t talk about it, some people won’t even believe it’s possible, and no one, except in very specific circumstances, talks to the man himself about it.”

“But it is my fault that it happened,” Nyan said.  “If I had been more specific in explaining the threat, you would have fled sooner.”

“We were there for all of three minutes when Rigar’s troops showed up, Nyan.  You did fine.  And that really isn’t the point.  You aren’t one of the people who has the right cultural . . . I don’t know, authority?  The right cultural authority to talk to Daniel about it.  If you talk to him about it, you’ll only succeed in upsetting him, and he doesn’t think it’s your fault, so your apologizing isn’t going to benefit either of you.”

“But how can he think that?” Nyan asked.

“He does.  Trust me, I know Daniel, he does.  And I don’t blame you.  Besides, you damned well came through for us in the end, which more than makes up for any mistakes you might have made.”

“But you were telling me how I upset Daniel earlier today,” Nyan said, changing the subject.  “About taboos.  Who is permitted to address the subject with him?  And if it is not appropriate to talk about the subject, then why are so many people doing just that?”

Jack suppressed a bit of unjustified anger and said, “As for the second question, they shouldn’t be.  It’s not appropriate, but gossip will happen and it’s impossible to stop.”

“This is gossip?” Nyan exclaimed.  “I had thought that it was odd that so many people would be expressing concern in such ways, and without reference to the victim, but I thought it was customary.”

“No.  Some of them are undoubtedly concerned, but some of them are just curious.  And we’ve already had evidence that some of them assume that it wasn’t an assault.”  Jack grimaced.  “Sexuality is kind of a messed up subject around here.”

“I see,” Nyan said.

“And the fact that it is being discussed at all, much less as openly as it is, that upsets Daniel.  See, only specific people know the details of what happened.  Daniel’s teammates, General Hammond, and select members of the medical staff.  Anyone else who says they know details is lying, and most of what you have heard is probably made up.”  He bit his lip.  “What have you heard?”

Nyan blinked.  “That he was raped by Commander Rigar,” he said.

“No more detailed account than that?”

“Actually, I have heard two different accounts that puzzled me greatly, but now I think I understand.  I heard one man saying that Daniel had . . .”  He stopped, looking uneasy.  “If sexual activity is not to be discussed, should I --”

“I need to know what stories are being passed around,” Jack said.

Nyan told him, and the first one was about what Jack had expected.  Full penile penetration rape with side events.  Inaccurate but not devastatingly so.  The second would turn Daniel white if he ever heard about it.  It featured multiple participants and a great deal more damaging activity.  Jack wondered frankly how the proponents of this tale thought Daniel had managed to get out of the infirmary in three days.  If that had happened to Daniel, he’d still be in Fraiser’s care, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Nyan faltered to a stop after the second version and sat waiting.

Jack cleared his throat.  “Rigar used his thumb and two of his fingers, and that’s it.”

Nyan blinked.  “That . . . then why do you not tell people so that they will stop making up these stories?”

“Because it’s Daniel’s private business, for one,” Jack said.  “And he doesn’t want people to know.  And because it’s not considered appropriate to air such details in public.”

“That does not make much sense to me,” Nyan said.  “When they are already discussing false versions of the real event, would it not be sensible to reveal the truth and lay it to rest?”

“Maybe, but things don’t always make a lot of sense, Nyan.”

The man sighed, nodding.  Then he cleared his throat.  “So what you are saying is that I should not make the attempt to apologize to Dr. Jackson. That I should, in fact, not bring up the event at all?”

“Right.”

“And that would not be seen as being disrespectful of Dr. Jackson?  Ignoring such a terrible --”

“No, it wouldn’t,” Jack said firmly.  “Here’s the thing.  You can express concern for his well being, quietly and without too much pressure.  It’s just actually mentioning the cause of the concern that’s a problem.”

“I see.”  Nyan sighed and looked around.  “So this is your place of work?  It seems very barren.”

Jack looked at the bare concrete walls and the utilitarian furniture.  And the chair, which Nyan was shifting on yet again, because it wasn’t remotely comfortable.  “I don’t spend a lot of time here.  Daniel’s office is much nicer.”

“There are no windows,” Nyan said.  “Dr. Rothman said that we are underground.”

“We are,” Jack said, and he gave Nyan a sympathetic smile.  Here was another man who was used to an active, outdoor life, being asked to live in a hole deep underground.  “I will see what I can do about getting you opportunities to go outside.  I know Teal’c goes out to take walks in the grounds.  I’m sure I could get you permission for that, and once you’re more settled, we’ll look into other sorts of outings.”

“I would very much appreciate that,” Nyan said, a smile brightening his face.

“This can’t be easy on you, either, between culture shock and leaving everything you know behind.  Have you . . . do you need someone to talk to about that?”

“Someone to talk to?” Nyan asked.  “I have no . . . it would ordinarily be my friends, my family, my co-workers to whom I would speak.  I know no one here well enough.”

“Well, around here, we have people whose job is listening to people talk about their problems and helping them through them.”

“I would speak with Teal’c, I have spoken with Teal’c, but he is away helping your friend, Major Carter.”

Jack smiled.  “Well, Teal’c’s been there, but if you feel the need to talk when he’s not around, or if you have something you don’t feel comfortable discussing with him, there is someone here you might be able to talk to.  Would you like to meet her?”

“I suppose,” Nyan said.  Jack reached out and gave Harry a call, explaining what he wanted.  She said she had a few minutes, so he took Nyan down to see her and introduced them.  Then he left them together, telling Harry to hand him off to Robert when she was done with him.


	38. Chapter 38

It was closing fast on six o’clock, and Fraiser had been very clear on the requirements for Daniel’s return to work.  For the first week back he had to work a reasonable shift, which she had defined as not leaving later than six o’clock in the evenings.  Jack headed up to Daniel’s office where he found the man deeply absorbed in his work.  He walked in, but this time Daniel wasn’t on a hair trigger.  He didn’t even seem to notice Jack’s presence immediately.

Jack walked over and sat down on the couch, figuring he’d let Daniel have every minute of Fraiser’s allotted time.  He picked up a book and started flipping through it.  A couple of minutes after he’d settled, Daniel slipped off his stool and turned towards him, obviously heading towards the bookshelves that were above Jack’s head.

Seeing someone on the couch, he gave a violent start and had to catch himself on the desk.  “Jack!  Don’t do that!!”

“Do what?” Jack asked.  He flipped the book shut and glanced at it.  _Essays on Mayan Culture._   “Should I not be reading this?”

“You should not be sneaking up on me!” Daniel said, his breathing a bit quick.  “I had no idea . . . how long were you there?”

“About two, maybe three minutes.  It’s coming up on six.  Can you leave what you’re working on?”

Daniel glanced back over his shoulder, then took the three steps that brought him directly in front of Jack.  Taking a book down off the shelf, he walked back over and dropped it on the desk.  “There, ready for tomorrow.  There’s not a chance in hell I could get my concentration back in less than a quarter hour, and you won’t wait that long, will you?”  Daniel sounded pissy, which Jack wasn’t sure how to take.  Daniel was often pissy about his work, but he might also be still feeling unsettled after this afternoon.  On consideration, given Daniel’s expression, Jack decided it was a good sign.

“No, you’re right, I wouldn’t.  Let’s head back to the house.  I gave Mrs. Withers next door a casserole to cook for me.  It should be ready when we get home, assuming we leave almost immediately.”

Daniel sighed.  “Fine, Jack.  Let’s go.”

When they got to the house, Jack said he’d go pick up the casserole and meet Daniel inside.  The archeologist barely acknowledged his words, heading inside.  Jack walked over and knocked on the Withers’ front door.  After a moment, Mrs. Withers let him in and led him into the kitchen.  “It’s just got a few minutes left, honey,” she said.  “Have a seat and can I get you a drink?”

“I’m fine,” Jack said, but he sat down at her kitchen table.

She sat down across from him, smiling broadly.  Her hair was gray and neatly styled, and, as always, she was dressed as if the most she did around the house was order well-mannered servants, despite the fact that he knew the most she had was a weekly cleaning woman.  “I am so glad to see you getting a little love into your life,” she said after a moment.

Jack blinked.  “I beg your pardon?”

“Oh, I’d never say anything to anyone else, but you’ve always seemed so lonely.”  She smiled at him confidingly.  “I’ve always been pleased when that young man came to stay.”  Jack raised his eyebrows.  She wasn’t suggesting . . . she couldn’t actually be hinting that . . . and approving?  “I would say, if you don’t want your relationship with him to be widely known, that you probably shouldn’t have him wandering around without his shirt on.  Not that he isn’t pleasant scenery, but . . . well, I’m sure you take my meaning.”

“Daniel and I aren’t . . . we don’t have . . . Mrs. Withers, you have the wrong idea.”

“Of course, dear, I understand,” she said with a confidential smile.

“No, you don’t understand, Daniel is recovering from some injuries.”

Her eyes widened.  “Injuries?  Oh dear!  What happened?”

“He got fairly badly burned on his torso, both back and front, and that’s why he wasn’t wearing his shirt.  It was his doctor’s orders, and she was pretty firm about it.”

“The poor boy,” Mrs. Withers said.  There was a gentle bell tone.  “That will be your casserole,” she said, getting up.  Handing it to him, she smiled.  “I’m sure your with tender loving care will have him back right as rain in no time.”

Biting back on the urge to yell at her, Jack just shook his head.  “Really, Mrs. Withers, Daniel and I are just friends.”

“Of course, dear.  Take good care of him.”

Jack walked back to his own house, wondering what he could possibly do to convince Mrs. Withers, who was sixty if she was a day, that he and Daniel weren’t lovers.  She was so delighted by the idea, too, which baffled him.  And what, if anything, should he tell Daniel?

The door opened as he reached it, and he walked into the dining room to find that Daniel already had the table laid.  “Just tell me it’s not tuna,” he said.

“No, enchilada,” Jack said, putting the dish down.  “Um . . . you should know, Mrs. Withers is convinced that we’re a couple.”

Daniel blinked owlishly at him, and then said, “Does this surprise you?”

“Um . . . yes, Daniel, it surprises me.  Doesn’t it surprise you?”

“Jack, I’m a long-haired academic with extremely liberal tendencies.  She wouldn’t be the first person to think I was gay.  Besides, she’s a nice old lady who probably likes to feel modern.  Having gay neighbors would fit in quite nicely with that.”

“We’re not gay, and you don’t have long hair.”

Daniel reached up and brushed across the top of his head.  “I know, I just . . . I did for so long that I guess I still think of myself that way.  Besides, I don’t even live here.  Did you point that out?”

“I told her you were recuperating from an injury,” Jack said.  Daniel’s calm, easy acceptance of this was annoying him a little.  Maybe Daniel was used to people assuming he was gay, but Jack wasn’t.  “She was concerned that we weren’t being very discreet about our relationship, what with you wandering around without your shirt.  She said the scenery was nice, but --”  Jack broke off with a grin at the choked noise Daniel made.

“She didn’t say anything of the sort!” he expostulated.

Jack pursed his lips, then said, “No, what she said exactly was ‘not that the scenery isn’t pleasant.’  Yeah, that’s it.”

“Jack, she’s old enough to be my mother!”

“Hell, Daniel, if she got an early start, she’s old enough to be your grandmother.  That doesn’t mean her eyes have stopped working.”

Daniel shifted uncomfortably.  “I’m not altogether comfortable with that,” he said.

“Let me get this straight,” Jack said.  “You’re perfectly comfortable with the notion that she thinks we’re lovers even though you’re not gay, but it makes you uncomfortable to know that this woman thinks you’re appealing to look at?”

Daniel raised an eyebrow, and his expressive face went through a series of emotions as he listened to the question.  When Jack was done, he said, “Yes, that’s about it, Jack.  What the hell difference should it make to me that she thinks we’re lovers?  We know it’s not true.  Half the guys on base probably think I’m gay, Jack.  As I said, I’m used to it.  But the notion that a woman I don’t know, who doesn’t know me, thinks looking at me is ‘pleasant’ is a little embarrassing.  I’d be willing to bet that if she expressed a desire to see you shirtless, you’d be a little freaked out, too.”

Jack laughed.  “I might be at that.”  They started eating, and talking about things at the SGC, and Jack found himself having to sidestep questions about his day’s activities.  As soon as they were done with dinner, and all the dishes were safely in the dishwasher, Jack said, “We need to talk about something.”

“Yes?” Daniel asked curiously, following him out into the living room.

“I’ve been looking into some of the problems that have been reported to me, and it’s come to my attention that the only department in the SGC that doesn’t have its own administrative staff is the archeology department.”

Daniel blinked at him for several seconds without replying.  “No, I guess that’s true,” he said.  “We’ve never really needed one.”

“Well, I’m not sure everybody agrees with you there, Daniel,” Jack said.  “And I’ve got my own concerns about the way things are being dealt with.  One, it seems that some of the military personnel think you’re their own personal translation staff, which isn’t the case.”

“Jack --”

“Grady came in to bug you over some translations today, right?  Not paying the slightest attention to the fact that he might be delaying you on some other task you might have that just possibly could be urgent, clearly assuming that he needed to ride herd on you to get the job done.”

“I guess that is how it seemed,” Daniel agreed.  “And that does happen, Jack, but we all expect that.”

Jack grimaced.  “Well, you shouldn’t.”  He shook his head.  “Point number two, not having a consistent person who receives documents puts you at the mercy of mishandling.  Tolliver and others who don’t take sufficient care over how they label their documents can simply claim that the civilians got things mixed up and off schedule, and who’s to say they’re full of shit?  Clearly you guys aren’t doing it.”

“What would be the point, Jack?” Daniel asked wearily.  “Most of your colleagues think the way you used to, the way you still do from time to time.  We’re just a bunch of undisciplined time wasters.  Never mind that we have to jump through way more hoops than you guys do to get funding, out there in the real world, never mind that academics, by the very nature of the school year, have hard and fast deadlines to meet on a regular schedule.  We never went to basic training, so therefore we don’t have what it takes to get things done in a military environment.”

“Well, that’s kind of what I wanted to fix,” Jack said.  “If nothing else, it’s only right that your department should have an administrative staff.  You guys with doctorates and double doctorates and triple doctorates don’t need to be filing and typing.  That’s a waste of your valuable time.”

“This is about my typing those notes up the other day, isn’t it?” Daniel guessed.

“Not exactly,” Jack said.  “Actually, that just brought a potential problem to my attention.  Then Rothman was complaining at lunch, and I went and talked with a couple of the others to see if the problems seemed to be universal, and they do.  The kind of crap Tolliver and Grady are pulling on you guys is bullshit, and I don’t intend to let it go on the way it has.”

“And just how is a military administrative staff going to change that, Jack?” Daniel asked.  “Come on, Tolliver’s just going to say that your new military staff whipped us into shape.”

“That claim won’t last past meeting with the new administrative head,” Jack said.  “I interviewed him today, and --”

“You chose an administrative head for my department without consulting me?” Daniel asked, blinking in astonishment.

“Umm . . .” Jack said intelligently.

“Did it never occur to you that whether I wanted the staff or not, I might have liked to have some say in the officer assigned to my department?”

“Well . . .”  Jack wasn’t sure what to say.  Sure it had occurred to him.  But more importantly, it had occurred to him that Daniel would quite likely do his darnedest to see only the negative.

“Would you have selected a new member of, say, Major Kovacek’s or Colonel Smith’s departments without giving them the chance to talk to the candidates?”

The memory of dropping Lt. Pearce’s file on Kovacek’s desk burned in Jacks’ mind, but there were reasons, damn it!  Good solid reasons why he hadn’t consulted Daniel.  “You wouldn’t have enjoyed the interviews, Daniel,” Jack said.  “It was mostly weeding through people who would most certainly not have worked out.”

“I see.”  Daniel stood up and paced for a moment.  “Something in the nature of protecting me from the obnoxiousness that sometimes permeates the military mindset?  Or maybe saving me from the mind-numbing tedium?”

Jack recognized the pitfalls inherent in agreeing with either of those statements, but he shrugged and said, “Sort of.”

Daniel’s eyes narrowed.  “Fine.  Assuming for the moment that I accept that, what stopped you from finding a couple of worthy candidates and letting me talk to them?”

Jack stared at him, then cleared his throat.  “I can’t argue with that, but in my defense, I only found one out of the six candidates who would be acceptable, and . . . you couldn’t do some of the basic screening.  You don’t have access to military personnel files.”

Daniel pursed his lips.  “All right, still, you could have allowed me to talk to . . . him, you said?”

“You’ve got me, Daniel,” Jack said.  “I didn’t involve you in the process because I thought you’d object too strenuously.”

“It’s not like you’re getting me an assistant, Jack,” Daniel said, and Jack felt his eyebrows go up in an expression of frozen surprise.  Not immediately noticing Jack’s reaction, Daniel went on.  “Now that I would object to, but --”  Jack’s immobility, the deer-in-the-headlights expression on his face, seemed to get through to the archeologist suddenly and he broke off.  “Jack?” Daniel asked suspiciously.

“Damn it, Daniel, you need an assistant,” Jack said earnestly.  At Daniel’s glower, he gave an exasperated sigh.  “I’m not the only one who thinks so.  In fact, I might go so far as to say that you’re the only one who doesn’t.”

Daniel stared at him, face set and angry.  “I see.  Because I’m so inefficient and incompetent, I suppose?”

Jack glared at him.  “Don’t even go there, Daniel,” he snapped.  “This isn’t because anyone thinks you don’t do a good job.  This is because we think you have more on your plate than anyone could reasonably handle on their own.  You do an amazing job, but you work too hard and I’m not the only one worried that you’ll burn yourself out.”  Jack tried a smile, but Daniel’s expression was almost painfully bland.  “There are only so many hours in the day, and only so much of you to go around.”  Daniel’s eyes were dark and unreadable.  Jack threw his arms wide.  “All we want to do is free up some of your time from the mundane tasks it doesn’t take three doctorates and the mind of a genius to accomplish.”

Daniel blinked at him for a moment, still utterly inscrutable.  Finally, as Jack was beginning to think he’d turned into a statue, he spoke.  “Flattery aside, I would still like to speak to this man, even if only by phone, before he shows up in my office.  I want to get an idea of his personality, his strengths . . . who is this guy, anyway?  Does he have a name?”

“Lt. Tony Sciaparelli,” Jack replied.  “He’ll be starting on Thursday.”  Daniel nodded, lips pursed.  “He’s currently on the administrative staff of a top secret laboratory working with civilian and military scientists.”

“So he’s comfortable with that combination?” Daniel asked, eyes still uncommunicative.

“Yes, Daniel, or I wouldn’t even have considered him,” Jack said, raising an eyebrow.  “Look, I should have made you a part of the process, but give me a little credit, would you?  I wouldn’t go out of my way to select someone completely inappropriate.”

Daniel flushed and looked down, still not relaxing the tension he’d exuded since Jack’s revelations.  “I really hate it when people make decisions that affect me without even mentioning it to me.”

Jack grimaced.  “I’m sorry, Daniel.  I just --”

“I know.  You were acting in my best interests, and you, like half the known world, are convinced that I’m incapable of recognizing what those are.”  Daniel shook his head.  “But I’m an adult, Jack, and have been for some time.”

“And you’ve been turning down the offer of an assistant for some time,” Jack said, not sure he should be pushing it, but unable to keep himself from doing so.  “Hammond’s offers were based on the same concerns I just delineated.  Nothing else.”  Daniel looked dubious.  “This isn’t a bait the civilian game, Daniel.  We’ve all watched you wade into a workload twice the size of the one shouldered by anyone else in your department, and work your way through it despite the limited time you have onworld.  It’s not a lack of belief in your abilities that’s driving this.”

“So what drove your decision to exclude me from the selection process, if not a lack of belief in my abilities?” Daniel asked, eyes narrowing.

Jack let out a sigh, then gave him a frank look.  “A firm belief in your unwillingness to cooperate.”  He could see in Daniel’s eyes that he was finally starting to get through.  “If I’d gone to you and said that we were giving you an assistant, you’d have started putting up roadblocks.  I figured that this was one of those situations where you don’t ask permission, you ask forgiveness.”  Daniel looked away, tacitly acknowledging the truth of the statement.  “Daniel, I’m sorry.  Lt. Sciaparelli really was the only choice in the available pool of candidates.”

Daniel shrugged, sinking down into a chair, and his expression relaxed.  “Sometimes, nothing is better than the wrong thing,” he said.

“I get that, Daniel, but I really think you’ll like him.  He’s smart, he’s a history buff, he’s fluent in Latin, Chinese and Arabic.”  That last piqued Daniel’s interest as Jack had expected.  “He’s comfortable with soft science academics.”

“How do you know?” Daniel asked.

“His uncle is a well known historian of . . . icons . . . no . . . anyway, he’s got one of you in the family.”

Daniel blinked, and a twitching began at the corner of his lips.  “One of us?  Just who would that be, Jack?  Weird, addle-brained academics?”

Jack grinned, seeing the sparkle of humor buried deep in Daniel’s eyes.  “You said it, not me,” he said, throwing his hands wide to disclaim responsibility.

“How old is he?”

“Mid-twenties or thereabouts.  I don’t have the file to hand.”

“Young then,” Daniel said.  “If he works out, and that’s a big if, Jack.”  Jack nodded, still grinning, confident in his choice.  “If I get him all broken in and working smoothly with me, am I then going to lose him to a field team?”

Jack’s grin faded.  “Uh . . . no.  He’s not eligible for field work, due to medical conditions.”

Daniel’s eyes darkened with concern, and Jack suddenly saw another angle on persuading Daniel to accept Lt. Sciaparelli.  “What happened?” the archeologist asked.

“He’s not a shirker, Daniel,” Jack said.  “It’s not like he’s one of those guys who gets himself injured to avoid real work, though I’m sure there are people who think that.”

“I didn’t think that was the case, Jack,” Daniel said irritably.  Getting him feeling defensive about the new guy was definitely a good ploy.  “What happened to him?”

Jack kept his grin to himself, not wanting his manipulation to be too obvious.  He leaned back in his chair.  “From what I gather, there was a plane crash on his way back from some mission or other.  Don’t know many details, just that he was on the plane with about fifteen others, the pilot, co-pilot and navigator, on their way back to base.  Something went wrong, the plane went down and Sciaparelli was one of the few who was still mobile.  Most of them were trapped on the plane.  He and one or two other guys were trying to get everyone off the plane before it blew up.”  He shuddered at the thought of being trapped on a plane like that.  “The crash was out the middle of nowhere so the emergency crews were aways out from them.  He went into the cockpit to get the pilot and co-pilot out.  The co-pilot was hurt and trapped, but once Sciaparelli freed him, he managed to get himself out of the plane, but the pilot had to be lowered out the cockpit window.  After everyone was out, once they were at the hospital, it was discovered that he was more badly hurt than anyone knew, even him.”

Daniel’s eyes were warm with compassion.  “That must have been devastating,” he said.

“Far as I can tell he’s adjusted okay, and he’s eager to come to work here.  He’s never heard of you, by the way.”

“Really?”  Daniel’s face creased in something like relief.  “I think I can live with that.  Look, can I talk to him?  I’m not going to be rude or try to find reasons to get rid of him, but I’d like the opportunity to speak to the man before he turns up on my doorstep.  And have you determined where he’s going to work?  My office isn’t really --”

“There’s a large storeroom across from your office.  Since the two doors sort of mark the entrance into ‘archeology territory,’ I thought it might work as his office.  And I thought I’d put the two sergeants on the landing around the corner, so that they’re the first line of defense, so to speak.”

“The two what?” Daniel asked, eyes widening.  “Back up, Jack.”

Jack raised his eyebrows.  “Hadn’t I mentioned them?  They’ll be Sciaparelli’s staff, monitoring file transfers, doing the running and fetching for all of you archeologists.  Nyan brings the total up to four.  I know that Hammond wants to add at least one if not two more staff in your department, which means we’ll need an administrative staff all the more urgently, and it would be better to get them in place as soon as possible so they’ll have a routine in place before we add more people to the department.”  Daniel looked stunned.  “I could give you the list of names I was looking at tomorrow.  People from the SGC, so you’d probably know all of them.”


	39. Chapter 39

Daniel nodded slowly, agreeing to the suggestion.  It looked like Jack had everything planned out, and there was no good fallback position.  He’d worked this like a military operation, striking all his weak points, subverting any possible allies and cutting off Daniel’s retreat.  Not that Daniel disapproved of having someone help out with the file management.  What Robert had complained about was a perennial problem, and Daniel had never come up with a satisfactory solution.

Still it was damned high-handed of Jack to select and assign an assistant without so much as a by your leave.  That he was right in saying that Daniel would have fought him on it was a side issue.  But Jack had known that he could never object to something that would benefit his fellow archeologists as much as a small administrative staff to monitor the scutwork that no one wanted to do.  Daniel often found it fairly soothing, but just as often he wished it to the nether hells.

“That works, Jack,” he said, sighing.  “Sorry, I just really hate . . . I don’t handle having people make decisions ‘for my own good’ all that well.”  Too many well meaning social workers had made such declarations for Daniel to be able to take it lightly.

“I’ll bring them over in the morning, and I’ll see what I can do to set up a phone call with Sciaparelli.  He’ll be at his old job tomorrow, I’m sure, so shouldn’t have trouble getting ahold of him.”

“That works,” he said again.  “Now, why don’t we watch that movie.  Liberty whatever.”

“Please, Daniel, a little respect.  _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance_ is a classic.”

“So put it in and I’ll go make us some coffee.”  Jack nodded and went towards the DVD player.  Daniel headed towards the kitchen.  “Want some cookies?” he asked.

“We have cookies?” Jack asked.

“I have cookies that I might be persuaded to share with you if you were really nice.”  Jack raised his eyebrows and Daniel shrugged.  “Despite my protestations, the commissary staff is still trying to feed me up.  There were four dozen cookies on my desk this morning.  Two dozen chocolate chip and two dozen chocolate chocolate chip.”

“Cookies sound great, Daniel,” Jack said, and Daniel could tell from both his expression and his voice that he hadn’t expected Daniel to forgive him so easily.

It wasn’t so much a matter of forgiveness, though.  It was a matter of acknowledging that he’d done something . . . maybe not wrong, but . . . Daniel stopped thinking about it and went to fetch cookies and coffee.

* * *

Daniel was nervous.  Sciaparelli was arriving any time now, and Daniel wasn’t sure what to expect.  His forty-minute phone call with the man on Tuesday ago had found Daniel warming to him as a person, but that was a far cry from wanting to work with him.

This could be fine, he told himself.  Sciaparelli could be great and they might work together very smoothly.  On the other hand, there might be problems and snafus and tension to spare.  Daniel bent to his translation of the texts for SG-6, but there wasn’t much point.  He was having a hell of a time focusing.

The interruption, when it came, was welcome.

There was a knock on his door and Daniel turned to find Jack standing with a young man with lieutenant’s bars on his blue collars.  “Daniel, let me introduce Lt. Anthony Sciaparelli.  Lieutenant, this is Dr. Daniel Jackson.”

Daniel stepped forward, holding out his hand.  “Please, call me Daniel,” he said.

“And I’m Tony, sir,” Sciaparelli said.

“Tony,” Daniel repeated.  “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you.  Have you met any of the other archeologists who are on base at the moment?”

“Nope,” Jack said.  “I thought I’d leave that to you.  He does, however, have his job description,” Jack added, giving Daniel an innocent look.

Which meant that Tony Sciaparelli had been added to Daniel’s list of official babysitters.  “Good,” Daniel said, lying through his teeth.  Poor Tony could clearly sense the tension, but just as clearly had no idea as to its source.  Trust Jack.

“So, I’ll just be going now, leaving Tony in your capable hands.”

Daniel nodded.  “Thanks, Jack.  Lunch at noon?”

“Make it twelve-thirty.  I have an appointment with the budget guys.”

Daniel gave him a commiserating look and Jack just shrugged.  “See you later,” he said to Tony, and Daniel turned to find the lieutenant gazing at him with some measure of apprehension.

“Has Jack shown you the office that’s meant to be yours?” Daniel asked.

Tony nodded.  “It’s pretty empty at the moment, but I’m sure that will change.”  He looked around Daniel’s office.  “Did all of these things come from other planets?” he asked.

Daniel glanced around at the artifacts that strewed the shelves and file cabinets, and basically every flat surface.  “Actually many of them are ordinary artifacts from Earth,” he said, glancing around.  “My parents had quite a collection, from many different cultures.”

Tony had started looking more closely at things, and Daniel watched him for a moment.  He looked as if he were a well-behaved child in a museum, hands tucked neatly together behind his back. “My uncle has one of these,” he said suddenly, pointing to an Incan statuette.

“Your uncle the academician?” Daniel asked tentatively.  Jack hadn’t been clear on what Tony’s uncle studied, and it hadn’t been a topic in their phone conversation.

Tony turned, smiling.  “Dr. Matthew Perkins,” he said.

“Ah,” Daniel replied, feeling his eyebrows raise slightly.  While not the foremost expert in his subject, Perkins was well known and well respected.  Neither an archeologist nor an anthropologist, he was a historian known for his skill with ancient South American languages.  Then something occurred to him and he groaned.  “Incan, not icon,” he muttered.

“I beg your pardon?” Tony said.

“Sorry, just a Jackism.”  At the other man’s puzzled look, Daniel chuckled.  “Colonel O’Neill likes to hide his keen intelligence behind a mask of dimwittedness.  One of his favorite ploys is the gratuitous use of malapropisms.  He told me your uncle was an expert on icons.”

“I see,” Tony said, eyes crinkling.  “No doubt you had images of Russian saints?”

“Actually, no.  I’ve known Jack long enough to be able to tell when he’s pulling my leg.”  Daniel smiled.  “My plan for today was a brief tour of the archeology department, a quick introduction to the other guys who work here, show you some of the key places you need to know about, and then lunch.  After lunch, I thought I’d let you follow me around and watch what I do, so you can tell me how you think you can help me.”

“That sounds reasonable.”

Daniel smiled and took him to see Robert, who was on base.  Tony very properly called Robert Dr. Rothman, and, typically, Robert seemed to enjoy it.  They spent a few minutes discussing Dr. Perkins’ theories, insofar as Tony was able, then Daniel took him to where Cameron Balinsky’s office was.  “Dr. Balinsky is off world at the moment.  He’s due back the day after tomorrow, so you can meet him then.”

“Does he know I’ll be here?” Tony asked.

“He does, he only left yesterday,” Daniel said.  “The next person I’m going to introduce you to is our newest archeologist.  He’s . . . he’s a little different.”  Daniel paused in the hallway, and Tony came to a stop beside him.  “You see, he’s a refugee.”

“From where?” Tony asked curiously.

“A planet we call P2X-416,” Daniel replied straightforwardly.  “He’s from a continent, or a nation that spans a continent, I’ve never been quite clear on that . . .”  Daniel shook himself.  He’d have to talk to Nyan more about that later, now wasn’t the time to get distracted.  “In any case, he’s from a place called Bedrosia where they have strong religious beliefs that deny the existence and use of the stargate.  He found it and . . . well, let’s just say it caused some problems.”

Tony raised his eyebrows.  “I see.”

Daniel sighed.  “We have two exiles among us.  Nyan, who’s been here less than three weeks, and Teal’c, who’s been here just shy of three years.  Nyan is an ordinary human . . .”  Daniel paused, looking over at Tony.  He had to look up slightly, because Tony was a little taller.  “How much do you know about the stargate and the people we’re meeting?”

“Colonel O’Neill said that you would fill me in.”

“Oh,” Daniel said.  Nice of Jack to tell him.  “Well, did he tell you about the Goa’uld?”

“That they were parasitic life forms that take over human hosts and control them, extending their lifespan, and . . . his words, not mine sir . . . ‘messing up the galaxy for everyone else.’”

“That just about sums it up,” Daniel said, grimacing.  “Well, the Goa’uld came to Earth in prehistoric times, using the stargate, and discovered that humans were terrific hosts.  They’re pretty territorial, though, so they scattered all over the galaxy, taking little enclaves of human slaves with them, so there are humans from Earth on many of the planets we visit.  Some of them have altered slightly in their genetics, some of them have been altered, but for the most part they’re just plain old human beings that could have been born in any city on Earth.”

“And this Nyan is one of those?” Tony asked.

“He is.”  Daniel took him on to Nyan’s office, where they found the alien archeologist working on his English reading skills with a corporal from SG-3, Abby Masterson, if Daniel remembered correctly.  He made the introductions, but Nyan didn’t seem very sociable today, so Daniel headed them on again.

He showed Tony a few other things that were important, but all stuff related directly to the archeology department.  The file rooms, the nearest restroom, the small library of translation materials that Daniel was gathering for use by other linguists.

Finally, they wound up back in Daniel’s office, and Daniel glanced up at the clock.  They had forty-five minutes before Jack and the others would be expecting them in the commissary.  He sighed and slid onto his stool.  “Let me give an idea of what I do around here,” he said.

“Please,” Tony replied, settling on another stool.

“I’m the culture and language expert on SG-1, which means that, in ordinary times, I go offworld once or twice a week.  There it’s my job to communicate to whomever we meet and learn as much as I can about how they live and think.”

“When is your next mission scheduled?” Tony asked.

Daniel sighed.  “I don’t know.  I’m currently on medical hold from off planet missions.”  He looked down at the photographs of a broken stone tablet that were arrayed carefully on his desk.  “I -- our last mission didn’t go so well.”

“Are you injured?”  Tony’s gaze was concerned as he looked Daniel up and down.

“No, my injuries are healed now,” Daniel said, shrugging.  “It’s been nearly two weeks.  That’s actually the mission where we got Nyan.”  Daniel looked up from the desk, and he could tell he was scowling.  Making an effort to soften his expression for his new assistant, he said, “I should probably tell you, someone will be bound to mention it within the next few days anyway.  On our last mission, we were captured, three of us that is.  Teal’c was on the perimeter and escaped notice.”

“My God,” Tony said, eyes wide.  “What happened?”

“As I said, they were religious nuts who believed that the stargate was a blasphemous notion, so our explanation of our presence went down very poorly.”  Daniel glanced to the side a little, focusing on the Incan statuette instead of Tony’s face.  “The people who captured us were military, and were determined to find out the ‘truth’ of what had happened, accusing us of being one of their enemies . . . I’ll get you the reports for more details.  The point is, we were tortured, and . . .”  Daniel bit his lip.

“Are you all right?”

Daniel nodded.  “I’m fine,” he said.  “But some . . . things . . . happened.  To me.”  He took a deep breath.  “I’m only telling you this because I gather it’s being talked of quite freely, and not at all accurately.  I was . . . assaulted . . . sexually . . . by our captor.”  The other man was staring in shock, and Daniel rushed in to try and wipe some of that away.  “Anyway, I’m fine, really, I just didn’t want you to get blindsided by some of the gossip that’s rolling around here.”  He forced a laugh.  “One of the things I’ve learned, being here, marines are bigger gossips than a gaggle of sorority girls.”

Tony sat back down, looking at his hands.  Then he looked up.  “If this question is out of line, sir, I apolo --”

“I’m not a sir,” Daniel interjected.  “I’m not part of the military, and unlike Robert, I don’t get off on having people call me by my title.  Just Daniel is fine.”

Tony nodded.  “I’m sorry, s -- Daniel.”

“You were asking?”

“Never mind,” Tony said.

Daniel grimaced, feeling very flushed and uncomfortable at having been so very open.  He changed the subject.  “So, I go out on missions.  Sometimes I bring back photographs of artifacts or the artifacts themselves to translate and work on.  Other teams do the same thing, and most of the samples make their way into my office at one point or another.”  He knew he was babbling, but there was no help for it.  “I’m one of only two people on the planet who can reliably translate Goa’uld, and I’m one of the few here who has the background to be able to make educated guesses at meaning in languages that branched off from ancient Earth languages millennia ago.  Thus, the stuff pretty much has to come by me unless it’s so cut and dried that anyone could handle it.”

“I see,” Tony said.  He was still looking a little wild-eyed over Daniel’s brief summation of the events on Bedrosia.

“Are you okay?” Daniel asked.  “Do you need a break?”

“No, I’m fine,” Tony replied, flushing.  “I’m just . . . very distressed on your behalf.”

“It’s not the norm,” Daniel hastily assured him.  “It’s pretty unusual, really.  I -- I’d like to say that getting captured and beaten up on is unusual, but I can’t.  That happens more often than I like to think about.”  He lifted a hand in an indeterminate gesture, then dropped it again as he realized how stupid he looked.  “We seem to piss people off.  Usually Goa’ulds, but there is the occasional human warlord or king that . . .”  Daniel stopped.  “I’m babbling.”  Tony nodded, then looked embarrassed.  “It’s okay, and it’s something you’ll have to get used to.  When I’m nervous, I talk a lot more than usual, and since I talk a lot normally, that means that when I’m nervous, I talk nonstop.”

Tony smiled.  “I get quiet when I’m nervous,” he said.

Daniel returned the smile.  “I guess we’re going to have a lot of one-sided conversations, then.”

“Yes, sir,” Tony said, then corrected himself quickly.  “-- Daniel.”

“Sir Daniel?” Jack said from the doorway.  “Someone getting delusions of grandeur?”

“Yeah, Jack,” Daniel said, grinning.  “I’m thinking of starting my own court.  You can be the jester.”

Jack’s eyes flew wide, and Daniel was pleased to have scored.  With a very short little pause for regrouping, Jack said, “What, I don’t get to be king’s champion?”

Daniel raised an eyebrow.  “That would be Teal’c.”

“Teal’c,” Jack repeated.  “Teal’c?”

Daniel gave Jack an innocent look.  “You have bad knees.”

Jack looked mightily offended.  “Thanks for reminding me, Daniel,” he said.  “It’s time for lunch.”

Daniel glanced up at the clock.  “It’s still only twenty after, Jack, I’m not late yet.”

“Did I say you were?”  Jack grinned over at Tony, who looked mildly alarmed.  “Don’t worry, Sciaparelli, we’re always like this.”

Tony’s eyebrows raised and Daniel laughed.  “Always,” he agreed.  “If we’d been brothers, our mother wouldn’t have dared take us on long car trips.”

Tony laughed.  “Oh, my brothers and I always drove our mother nuts, but she had a solution.  She’d blare opera so loud that we couldn’t hear each other.”

“Really?” Jack said, eyes lighting up.  “Which ones?”

Tony seemed surprised by the question, but pleased.  Daniel suppressed a groan as he replied eagerly.  “Mom’s always been a Verdi fan, but when we got really bad, she’d go for Wagner, all loud jangly noise.”

“I don’t mind Wagner, but I prefer . . .”  Daniel tuned out the opera-speak as they headed down to the commissary.  He still remembered how shocked Jack had been when he found out that Daniel had no interest in opera.  Evidently he’d been under the misapprehension that all intellectuals liked opera.

He was relieved when they reached the commissary and were met with the necessity of introducing Tony to Teal’c and Sam.  The major was still looking pretty tired, but she was clearly feeling much better.  It was only her second day back to work after her near-collapse.

Daniel sat with them, listening vaguely to Teal’c explaining to Tony what a Jaffa was.  His eyes wandered around the commissary, and he saw a lot of people watching them.  He wanted to think that it was just that they had the new guy at their table, but he had a strong sense that they were watching ‘him’ more than ‘them.’  There was sympathy in those eyes, and curiosity, and concern, and, yes, disgust in one or two pairs.  Daniel returned his attention to his plate, unsettled by these observations.  He’d rather not have quite so many people thinking about him at all, much less thinking ill of him.

He was pleased to see that Tony seemed comfortable enough with Teal’c, more fascinated than repulsed by the idea that he had a symbiote in his pouch.

“So you’re sort of like a marsupial,” Tony said.

Jack burst out laughing, and Teal’c turned a slightly raised eyebrow on him.  “Sorry,” Jack gasped.  “I just had an image of Teal’c the kangaroo, and it was . . .”

The Jaffa radiated offended dignity as Daniel was forced to suppress a snicker and Sam’s eyes started dancing.  “I didn’t mean to --” Tony started, but Teal’c shook his head.

“It is not you, Lt. Sciaparelli.  O’Neill has a low sense of humor.”

“Oh, come on, big guy,” Jack said.  “The ears and the forearms held up against the chest . . .”

Daniel took a hold on himself.  “Jack, that’s kind of rude,” he said disapprovingly.  He had a feeling that the twitch at the corner of his lips ruined the attempt, but it had to be made.

“Do not worry, DanielJackson, I will get my . . . I believe the word is ‘payback,’ in due time.”

That sobered Jack somewhat.  “You do remember that hitting a superior officer is a criminal offense.”

Teal’c’s eyebrow rose even higher.  “I will keep that in mind, O’Neill, should I ever meet one.”

Sam choked suddenly and managed to groan out, “I need to get . . . something.”  She stood up and disappeared out the door in the direction of the women’s room.  Jack was rendered speechless, which was such a rare event that Daniel knew he’d be entering it in his journal that night.

“So, what’s the plan for tomorrow?” Jack asked after a moment of silence.  Teal’c sat back, relaxing his eyebrow, looking satisfied.

“Well, I figured I’d start giving Tony mission files to read, specifically SG-1's files.”  Daniel shrugged.  “And the expedition journals that go along with.  That way he can become familiar with my handwriting, my abbreviations and things like that, and get a feel for how I think.”  Jack nodded, looking mildly startled.  Daniel gave him a bland look in return.  He might not have chosen this situation, but he was damned if he was going to give anyone the opportunity to say he hadn’t given it a fair try.  Teal’c rose and said his good byes, heading off to work.  When he was gone, Daniel continued.  “That’s the morning.  In the afternoon, I’m going to have him watching me work, getting ideas for how he can insert himself into the process effectively.”

“Sounds good,” Jack said approvingly.  “How soon do you think you’ll be ready for your staff, Sciaparelli?”

Tony grimaced.  “Late next week, maybe.  I’d like to spend a few days observing Dr. Jackson --”

“Daniel,” Daniel interjected.

“Yes, Daniel,” Tony said, grimacing again.  “To get a feel for the operation of the office.  Then I’d like to watch the other archeologists who are already settled into the routine, talk to them about what they think their needs are, and then I’ll be ready to start putting together a coherent plan of action regarding staff expectations.  Have you selected the personnel yet?”

“I will have before tomorrow,” Jack said.

“I’d like to talk to them, and to their superiors, if time can be found,” Tony said.  “Just to get a feel for them, for their strengths and weaknesses.”

“See, Jack, he wants to be kept in the loop,” Daniel pointed out.


	40. Chapter 40

A long silence followed that comment from Dr. Jackson.  Tony didn’t know what the source of tension was, but the air between the two men was heavy with it as they gazed silently at each other.  Watching the four of them talk and relate together had been very telling.  Both the other members of SG-1 were almost reverent towards Dr. Jackson, whereas Colonel O’Neill was . . . not.

O’Neill raised an eyebrow at Daniel.  “You’re never going to drop this, are you?”

“Never’s a big word, Jack,” Daniel said.  “But I think you can count on me not to let up for a while.”

Lunch ended and Dr. Jackson took him back to his office where Tony seated himself on a chair and watched while the archeologist sank himself into a project, barely taking time to drink his coffee.  Colonel O’Neill had been very eloquent on the subject of Daniel and his coffee.

During the five hours that he sat there, watching, seventeen people came in, interrupted the work Dr. Jackson was doing for times varying from thirty seconds to half an hour.  Since he was supposed to simply observe at the moment, he didn’t say anything, but he did keep any eye on how long it took Dr. Jackson to regain his concentration after each disruption.  He also noted how receptive Dr. Jackson was to the interruptions.  He was always polite about it, but Tony could see that he wasn’t always thrilled by the visitors.  He made a mental note regarding Daniel’s accessibility.  It would have to be reduced greatly.  It wasn’t fair to the man to lay such a load of stress on him to get something done, then to come and want to talk for twenty minutes during the workday.

The next day he started reading through the team’s mission reports, and Dr. Jackson’s journals.  He’d been a little startled until Daniel had explained to him that he kept two different sets of journals, one for the official mission information, one for his thoughts and feelings.  There was clearly some overlap, but the mission journals weren’t overwhelmingly personal most of the time, and when they did get personal it was generally about relationships to do with his job.

As he read, he kept an eye on Dr. Jackson’s visitor flow.  Once again, it was pretty high.  Part of that could be due to the high level of concern he’d sensed from some people towards the archeologist, that he presumed was related to the mission that had gone so badly, but part of it was clearly due to the fact that Daniel was just too nice to tell them to get the hell out when they were interrupting him.

After one such visitor left, Tony asked, “Daniel, why don’t you just tell them to leave?”

“What?” Dr. Jackson said, eyes wide with surprise.  “It wouldn’t really be appropriate.”  He shrugged, stretching.  “Besides, once they’ve interrupted, it doesn’t much matter how long they stay.  It’s going to take me a while to get back into the swing of things, regardless.”

Tony nodded.  “It’s still rude of them to just barge on in here, as if you’ve got nothing more important to do than talk to them.”

“Telling them that wouldn’t get me anywhere,” Daniel said.  “It would just annoy them, and I don’t need that.”

Tony considered that for a moment.  “I see your point,” he said, and he did, but there was an easy solution that didn’t require Daniel to tell anyone anything.

“So, how often would you say that people who come in here really _need_ to see you?”

Daniel shrugged.  “I suspect if you asked them, they’d all say they do.  Of course, a lot of them are curious about you.  Jack sent out an e-mail explaining about you, and I suspect at least some of these folks are trying to get a look at my new assistant, and what rigors I must be putting him through.”

“Rigors?” Tony asked.  Dr. Jackson was right, quite a few people had asked to be introduced to him, which threw things off a bit.  “What rigors?”

The archeologist gave him an apologetic smile which Tony was baffled by until he spoke.  “See, I’ve been refusing an assistant for two years now, since General Hammond started trying to get me to accept one.  Most everyone knows that, so they’re expecting me to be trying to run you off.”

“You haven’t done that, as far as I can tell,” Tony said, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m not likely to, either,” Daniel replied.  “It’s . . . it wouldn’t be fair.  If I was to be annoyed with anyone, it would be Jack, not you.”

Tony nodded.  “I guess that makes sense, though it might not occur to everyone,” he said.  Daniel shrugged, but before he turned back to his work, Tony asked, “What constitutes urgent?  You have two inboxes, one for urgent items and one for non-urgent.  What are the criteria you use to differentiate?”

Dr. Jackson looked over at the pair of wire mesh baskets, eyes dark and unreadable.  “How many lives are hanging on it,” he said in a low, tense voice.  There seemed to be nothing to say after that, and Tony bit his lip, unsure how to react.  After a moment, Daniel flushed slightly and then cleared his throat.  “Sorry, didn’t mean to be so melodramatic.  It’s got to do with military significance, really, or diplomatic.  That can be hard to determine for anyone outside this department.  For instance, the only people we have that are qualified to judge Goa’uld texts are Teal’c and I.  So Goa’uld texts wind up in here until I can determine their level of importance.”  He shrugged.  “Sometimes it’s easy to tell, or seems to be, like with a weapon.  Though there was one funny incident when someone brought me an advanced weapon with words inscribed on the side, absolutely certain that they were somehow key to our understanding of that culture.  It read, ‘With all my love, to keep you safe, Alida.’”  Daniel blinked a couple of times, a wry grin on his face, and Tony laughed.  “So, you see, it’s often very hard to judge.”  He paused, giving Tony what felt like a measuring look.  “If you’re going to be trying to triage my inbox, you’re going to have to get a basic grounding in Goa’uld, and some of the other more commonly encountered languages.”

“And Goa’uld is based on ancient Egyptian?”

“Some is,” Daniel said.  “But Goa’uld dialects have been influenced by numerous ancient languages.”  Daniel looked thoughtful.  “And the fact that you already know Latin will stand us in good stead.  The language of the Ancients is related to Latin.”

“The Ancients?” Tony asked.  “Are they good guys or bad guys?”

“Good guys, we think.  They appear, however, to have died out.  It’s the Ancients who built the stargate network.”

“Fascinating,” Tony said.  It was also alarming to think that so much of Earth’s culture and society had been influenced by aliens both good and bad.  “Right, well, I learn languages pretty quickly,” he went on.  “I wouldn’t claim to know it, really, but I do know a few words in Incan.”

“That could prove useful,” Daniel said.  “And if you’re willing, I could use you as a sort of guinea pig.  I’ve created a sort of Goa’uld primer, but I haven’t had an opportunity to test it out on anyone.”

Tony leaned forward eagerly.  “Is that something I could take home with me to work on, or is the language itself classified?”

“No, you can take it home.  I set it up that way.  He walked over and pulled a box off a shelf.  “This is the only one I’ve got, but go ahead and take it home if you want.”

Tony took the box and opened it.  Inside were a couple of CDs and a notebook full of phrases and translations and pictograms.  “Thank you,” he said.  “This should be very interesting.”

“Just don’t overwork yourself,” Daniel said.  “You’ve got a lot on your plate, starting out here.  It’s a lot to take in.”  Tony raised an eyebrow, contemplating some of what Colonel O’Neill had told him about Dr. Jackson’s usual working habits.  “Now, I’ve got to get back to work.  I promised these translations to Colonel Miller by Monday, and Janet has forbidden me to work on the weekends.”

Tony watched Dr. Jackson return to his work and continued to read mission reports while observing the ongoing stream of visitors.  He was getting quite frustrated with the sheer number of people who seemed to think that dropping by Dr. Jackson’s office for a chat was just fine.

He also noticed a significant rise in tension in the archeologist as one or two people expressed concern and sympathy for his recent ordeal.  Realistically, there was nothing Tony could do about that.  He just watched and listened and learned.

About twenty minutes before noon, Colonel O’Neill came in to carry Dr. Jackson off to lunch with the general.  Stopping the colonel briefly, Daniel told Tony to go find himself some lunch and wander around afterwards, getting acquainted with the facility and the other people who worked there.

Tony watched them go.  There was clearly a deep, abiding friendship between the two men, despite current upheavals.  He put two and two together, and it seemed very strange to realize that he was the current upheaval.

Heading down to the commissary, he got himself a tray of food and sat down.  It wasn’t very crowded at the moment, but that wasn’t surprising.  Dr. Jackson had told him that morning that five teams were offworld and three teams were having some well needed rest time, and he was a little early for the lunch hour.

He settled down at a table in the corner, prepared to observe the activities of Dr. Jackson’s co-workers.  Three marines, officers, came in shortly after he sat down and got their own food, heading to a table across the room.  One of them caught sight of him, though, and after dropping his tray off with his buddies, he walked across to Tony’s table.  “You’re the new guy in the archeology department, aren’t you?” he asked.

Tony nodded.  “I’m going to handle administrative matters for them.”

The jarhead raised an eyebrow, and his eyes went to Tony’s bars.  “So, you’re not an archeologist?  You’re a real soldier?”

Tony blinked, a little startled by the assessment.  “I’m not an archeologist,” he confirmed diplomatically.  He looked down at the name patch on the marine’s chest.  Lt. Marquez.

“So, are you taking over the department, or are you going to be working under Dr. Jackson?”

His eyebrows rose.  “Dr. Jackson will still be head of the department,” he said.

“That’s rough,” Marquez said.  “Sucks to take orders from a civilian.”

“I don’t think it will be a problem,” Tony replied.

Marquez looked from side to side, as if checking to make sure no one was listening, and, though the room was beginning to fill up and there were plenty of people who might be able to hear, he leaned closer and said, “Did you know your new boss was gang raped on his last mission offworld?”

Tony stared blankly at the man for a long moment, then tilted his head.  “And you feel this is an appropriate topic to discuss?” he asked frostily.

Marquez flushed darkly and stood up straighter, gaping briefly like a fish.  Then he closed his mouth and stared for another long moment.  Finally, he turned away, evidently finding nothing to say in reply to Tony’s question.

As Marquez started to walk off, he came face to face with Major Carter, whose eyes were like cold chips of blue ice.  He flushed even darker and nodded, walking swiftly over to his buddies.  Major Carter walked over to the table and smiled.   “Nice job,” she said.  “Mind if I join you when I get my food?”

“Not at all,” Tony said.

She nodded and walked away.  Tony watched her.  Having read some of SG-1's mission logs, he knew what that woman was capable of, and she impressed the hell out of him.  That she was also incredible to look at was just a nice bonus.

* * *

Daniel came out of the meeting with Hammond and Jack feeling wrung out and frustrated.  Evidently there were still some concerns about his emotional state which led to a guaranteed further week of being grounded from offworld missions.  Admittedly, that would allow him to catch up on his backlog of translations, but it was . . . he didn’t know what he would have to do to convince the general that he was fine.

Jack tried to catch his attention after lunch, but Daniel pretended not to notice and Jack didn’t push, probably figuring that he’d have a captive audience later, when they went back to his house.  Daniel sighed.  It was now time to go see Janet and get his -- hopefully -- final exam.  The burns were completely healed, and didn’t appear to be scarring that he could see.  And he hadn’t had any pain in either his genitals or his . . . his anus . . . for a while now.

He was not looking forward to this, however.

Janet was quick, and Jack’s suggestion that he concentrate on the difference between her exam and Rigar’s attack was largely effective.  Before much time had passed, he was sitting in Janet’s office.  “So, how am I?” he asked.

“Physically, you’re completely healed, and very fortunate.  There are no scars.  I was afraid the worst of them would leave something behind, but it hasn’t.”

Daniel smiled, glad to know that there would be no physical reminders of his experience.  “So, we’re done with this?” he asked.

“We are,” she said, smiling back at him.  “Now, are you . . .”  Her voice trailed off, and she looked very hesitant.

He guessed where she was heading and took a deep breath.  “Mostly I’m frustrated that General Hammond seems to think I haven’t ‘dealt’ with it sufficiently.”

“I can offer a suggestion that might help him with that,” Janet said diffidently.  Daniel raised an eyebrow.  “We have a new psychiatrist on staff, very different from Dr. McKenzie.”  She must have seen something forbidding in his expression, because she leaned closer and spoke persuasively.  “I think you’d like her, Daniel.  She’s an unusual woman.”

“I don’t want to see a psychiatrist, Janet,” Daniel said.  “I’ve seen a few before, and it never goes well.  It’s pointless.  They either tell me how brilliant and tragic I am and decide I need weekly sessions for the rest of time, or they tell me I’m displacing hostility and decide I need weekly sessions for the rest of time.  Either way, I’m not interested.”

Janet gave him a worried look.  “Are you getting enough help from Colonel O’Neill?”

Daniel shrugged.  “He’s helping a lot.  I don’t really want to talk about it.”

Sighing, Janet nodded.  “All right, Daniel.  I do wish you’d give Harry a chance.”

“Harry?”

“Dr. Lisle, the psychiatrist.  Harriet Lisle.  You should ask Colonel O’Neill about her, he’s spoken with her.”

Daniel stood up.  “Thanks, Janet.  How’s Cassie?”

Janet smiled more broadly.  “She’s fine.  Hey, I’ve got an idea.  Why don’t you and Jack and Sam and Teal’c come over for a barbecue this weekend at my place?  Cassie’s been asking after all of you, and since you’re not supposed to be working, this would be a great opportunity.”

“I don’t see why not,” Daniel said.  “I can’t speak for anyone else’s plans, but . . .”  He laughed.  “Though now I think of it, I probably could,  actually.  Sam plans to spend the weekend with the dial-up computer, Teal’c will probably spend a lot of time with Nyan, and Jack has a building desire to inflict bad kung fu movies on me.”

“Then you’d better come, just to save your sanity.”

“I’ll get them all moving in the right direction.”  Daniel turned to go.  “Oh, wait, do you mind if we add one more person to the list?”

“Who?”

“Tony Sciaparelli.  He’s new around here, and it might be nice for him to see us on a social basis.”

“True, I thought maybe you were thinking of Nyan.”

Daniel blinked.  “That’s not a bad thought.  What about both of them?”

“It’s fine with me, Daniel.  Just let me know.’

Daniel nodded and went out, going straight back to General Hammond’s office.  Lt. Schafer smiled at him and waved him inside.

Hammond was on the phone, so Daniel walked over to the window and looked out into the room beyond, waiting.  After a couple of minutes, he heard Hammond hang up the phone.  “What can I do for you, son?” he asked as Daniel turned around.

Daniel walked over and sat down in one of the chairs in front the general’s desk.  “I have a request to make of you,” he said as Hammond opened his mouth to speak.  “Not about me, I . . . understand your reasoning there.”

“I see,” the general said.  “Then what did you have in mind?”

“Janet’s planning a barbecue this weekend, inviting SG-1 and Tony -- Lt. Sciaparelli,” Daniel said and Hammond nodded.  “I thought it might be nice if Nyan could come, too.”  Before Hammond could reply in the negative, which Daniel fully expected he’d feel obligated to do, Daniel hurried on persuasively.  “He’s been granted refugee status, so it’s not as if he’s considered a threat, and he’d be surrounded by SGC personnel, including the one of us he’s most comfortable with -- and who’s most aware of the pitfalls faced by an alien on American soil.”

“Teal’c,” Hammond supplied, nodding.

“Yes, sir.  I really think he deserves a chance to actually see the planet he’s been forced to take as his new home.  It’s not very hospitable of us to keep him tucked away deep underground.”

Hammond smiled at Daniel and said, “You’ve got strong feelings on this, don’t you, son?”

“He saved us, sir, at great risk to himself with no expectation of repayment,” Daniel said.  “Teal’c would have died without his help, he needed two solid days in medical isolation to get his symbiote functioning properly again, and Jack, Sam and I --”  Daniel broke off, turning his head away.  “We’d either be dead or still in custody.”

“We would have come through the stargate for you, son,” Hammond said.

“I know,” Daniel replied.  “But the shuttle Teal’c hijacked was probably the one that was supposed to take us back to Rigar’s base.”

“Take you where?” Hammond asked, looking startled.

Daniel blinked.  “He gave the order, just after you called through the gate, to ship us back to a ‘more secure facility.’  I thought you knew.”

“Neither Colonel O’Neill nor Major Carter mentioned this.”

Daniel grimaced.  “They were both still pretty out of it,” he said.  “They were both coming to after having been zatted through the bars of those damned cages.  Maybe they didn’t register it.  But Rigar was moving us.  If Teal’c hadn’t moved when he did, you might have had a hell of a time locating us.”

Hammond was staring at him, clearly appalled.  After a moment, he seemed to find his voice.  “I . . . is there anything else that happened while Carter and O’Neill were unconscious?”

“No, not really,” Daniel said.  “Or . . .”  He flushed.  “He almost killed Jack,” Daniel said.  Hammond’s eyes widened.  “When he zatted Sam, she bounced back against the bars, but then fell over her knee, away from the walls of the cage.  Jack’s balance was different, though, or something, because he landed against the bars and lay there, unconscious and . . .”  Daniel couldn’t finish the sentence.  “It was the stargate coming on that distracted Rigar and saved him.”

“And he was shooting them to get you to talk about Teal’c?”  Daniel nodded.  “Son, I have to tell you how very proud I am of your conduct on this mission.  Under extremely trying conditions, despite abuse and torture, you protected your teammates in whatever ways you could.  If you were an officer under my command, I would put you in for a commendation.”

Daniel gulped.  “I -- uh . . . really?”

Hammond smiled.  “Really,” he said.  “Now, unfortunately, I’m going to have to ask you to do something you’re probably going to find very difficult.”  Daniel raised his eyebrows.  “I’m going to need a report from you on what happened on the mission.  I have reports from the others, but I still need yours.”

Daniel felt his jaw drop slightly and he took a deep breath to steady himself.  “Of course, general.  I completely forgot . . . I didn’t think about . . . it was an oversight.”

“I’m not upset, don’t worry.  And there’s no rush about it.”

Daniel nodded uneasily, feeling guilty for forgetting, even if Hammond was being forgiving.  “I’ll have it for you before Tuesday.”

Hammond looked at him.  “I should have waited to ask until Monday, shouldn’t I?” he asked.  “Now you’re going to feel compelled to work on it this weekend.”

Daniel shrugged.  “Well, what about Nyan?”

Hammond smiled.  “Get me the time and location, and who he’ll be in the care of while he’s off the base, and I’ll get the papers filled out tonight.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Daniel went straight to Jack’s office.  “What do you think of a barbecue at Janet’s this weekend?  Sam, Teal’c, Nyan and Tony.”

Jack looked up at him, startled.  “Nyan?  Do you have permission?”

“I just have to give Hammond the particulars and we’re good to go.”

“Nyan’s been on the planet for less than two weeks,” Jack exclaimed.  “How did you do it?”

Daniel gave Jack a sly grin.  “I asked, Jack.  What would you have done?”  Jack just glowered at him.

After checking with all the people involved, Daniel got the information to Hammond.  They would be having their barbecue from around noon till nine at the latest on Sunday, Sam would be picking up Teal’c and Nyan and returning them to the base afterwards, and they would all be meeting at Janet Fraiser’s house.

Hammond said he would take care of everything, and Daniel headed back to his office, light of heart.  Nyan was thrilled, and Tony was pleased to be included.  He finished one of his translations for Colonel Miller, promised the man he would have the other one done by ten a.m. Monday morning and headed home with Jack, his mission journal and the partial report on P2X-416 tucked away in his briefcase so he could start working on the mission report.

Once he and Jack had finished dinner, he pulled them out of his briefcase and sat on the floor between the sofa and the coffee table.  “Jack, Hammond asked for my mission report today.”

“And it’s the weekend, Daniel,” Jack replied, reaching for the papers.  “You’re not supposed to be working.”

“And I don’t want to work on it at the mountain,” Daniel countered.  “If I have . . . problems, I’d rather have them here.”

Jack stopped and looked at him, and Daniel hoped he read sincerity and determination in his expression.  “That seems reasonable,” he said slowly, meeting Daniel’s gaze.

“And I didn’t promise it to him for Monday.  I’m not going to work on it all weekend till I finish it.  I just . . . I want to get started on it, and I’d rather not feel like I’m on display during it.”  He grimaced with frustration.  “Half the damned mountain came into my office today, partly to see Tony, but there are enough people who were offworld when we got back who haven’t seen me yet, that it was that too.  I was about ready to lock the door and tell Tony to go find a gun to hold it against all comers.”

“That bad?” Jack asked.  “Do I need to --”

“There’s nothing you can do, Jack.  The point is that anyone could come into my office while I’m in the middle of writing that report, and I still don’t know how I’m going to react to writing it.  It would just be better all around if I’m here, where you’re handy to help me cope if I have problems.”


	41. Chapter 41

Jack was floored by the level of trust Daniel was placing in him.  His friend was incredibly protective of his emotional life, yet he was specifically setting out his plans so that if he did have a breakdown, it would be in front of Jack.

“Okay, Daniel, if that’s what you want,” he said.

Daniel nodded and said, “So, pick out a movie -- and let’s watch something while I try to get this damned thing out on paper.”

It was surprisingly easy to get started.  He wrote up the conversation with Nyan, and described in detail how the force fields caught and trapped them, then knocked them out.  The blood test, the cages, the initial questioning, these all flowed easily onto the paper.

The dead body of the Bedrosian soldier was Daniel’s first stumbling block.  The emotions it had caused at the time were jumbled at best.  Dismay at the man’s death, relief at knowing that Teal’c was still out there and alive, anxiety that his soldier’s death would make Rigar take more rigorous steps to find him, fear that his reactions were baldly apparent on his face . . .  All of it combined very poorly.  Seeing the DHD was, again, worrisome.  He described the consternation he’d felt regarding whether to tell the truth or not when Rigar asked what the thing was.

Then he came to a standstill.  There was no part of him that wanted to write about what Rigar had done to him in that tent.  In no way did he want that part of the public record, despite the fact that he knew it already was.  He didn’t want to put his own written words to it, though he knew he had to.

“Why don’t you take a break, Daniel?” Jack suggested, leaning forward and taking the pen out of Daniel’s motionless hand.

He looked up into the warm brown eyes of his friend, and words came tumbling out without conscious volition.  “He was going to move us.”  Jack closed the journal and the mission report and stacked them neatly to the side, his expression puzzled.  “He was going to take us someplace more secure, someplace away from the stargate.”

Jack’s face drained of color.  “I don’t remember that.”

“You were still pretty out of it, both you and Sam were.  Rigar zatted the MALP, then said that he wanted us moved.”  Daniel licked his lips, remembering the dry mouthed panic he’d had to suppress.  “I think the shuttle that Teal’c hijacked was the one that was going to take us away.”

“Hell,” Jack said.  “And after what had already happened . . .”

“I didn’t know what to expect.  Truthfully, I didn’t want to know.”  Daniel felt himself shivering.  “And that’s another source of nightmares.  If Teal’c hadn’t moved before he was really able, if Nyan hadn’t helped him, we would have been long gone before Hammond could have gotten authorization to send troops through to retrieve us.”

Jack was silent for a moment, then he rested a hand on Daniel’s shoulder.  “Well, that didn’t happen.  We all got out safe and sane.”

“What’s it going to take to get Hammond to okay me?”

“Time.  Or the okay of a psychiatrist.”

Daniel looked up at Jack startled to sense that this latter option wasn’t a joke.  “Not you, too?” he asked, feeling a bit betrayed.

“I would ordinarily never suggest it, Daniel,” Jack said seriously.  “But I think you might really like Harry.  She’s a pretty surprising old broad.”

Daniel shrugged.  “I might like her, but that doesn’t mean she would be an effective psychiatrist for me, Jack.  I’ve been around the block with shrinks before.  They don’t work for me.”

“All right, Daniel,” Jack said.  He stood up and came over to the sofa, sitting down behind Daniel, his legs on either side.  “You know, it’s getting pretty late, you just didn’t watch two movies in a row.”  He reached out his hand with the remote in it and started another movie.  “Now, I have a feeling you’re going to have trouble with this tonight, so let’s see if we can get you a little better relaxed before going to bed.  _Toy Story_ started, and Jack started to rub the tense muscles of his shoulders.  Daniel felt very odd, but he wasn’t going to argue.  Jack’s hands were strong, and he knew how to work at the aching knots of strain in Daniel’s muscles.

The movie was funny and clever, and Daniel found himself drowsing and half dreaming of toy astronauts and archeologists.  “You know, I suspect this movie has to give some kids nasty dreams,” he said muzzily as the ‘space ranger’ flew through the air with the cowboy doll in his arms.  “Imagining that your toys are talking about you when you’re asleep, or at school.  Could really freak kids out.”

“Yeah,” Jack said.  “You are already almost asleep, aren’t you?”

Daniel sighed.  “Yup.”  He pushed himself up to his feet.  “You going to read me a story, Daddy?” he asked, giving Jack a wry look.

* * *

Jack raised an eyebrow at Daniel’s comment.  “Sure,” he said.  “I’ll find something and meet you up there.”

Daniel’s eyes widened slightly, but he turned and went upstairs.  Jack scouted out a bookshelf he very seldom looked at much and selected a book.  He found something that was low key, pleasant and very happy.  Something he thought Daniel would enjoy.

He went upstairs and found Daniel in bed but not asleep.  The archeologist looked over at him suspiciously.  “You didn’t,” he said.

“I did,” Jack replied, holding up his find.

“Hang on to it,” Daniel said.  “I’m going to drop right off here.  You might need it tomorrow night.”

Jack nodded.  “Sleep well.”

“I’ll try.”

Jack went to bed himself, and since Daniel didn’t wake him during the night, he presumed that the other man had slept through the night.  He got up and, after peering into the second bedroom to see a somnolent archeologist, he went downstairs and started breakfast.  Before long, Daniel came down looking ruffled and muzzy, dressed only in low-slung sweatpants and a black t-shirt.

“G’morning,” he said, sitting down at the table.

“Did you sleep okay?” Jack asked.

Surprisingly, Daniel grinned.  “Oh yeah,” he said.  “I dreamed about us being toys.  Bunches of little toy Air Force colonels and majors and Jaffa, about the size of Star Wars figures.”

Jack tilted his head.  “You know about Star Wars figures?”

“Lou’s kids have some.  He showed them to me once, just before Christmas.”

Jack nodded.  “So what were all the little toy Jacks and Carters and Teal’cs doing?”

“Beating the living daylights out of a toy Rigar.  Eventually, Teal’c melted him till he was just a little puddle of goo.”  Daniel grinned broadly.  “It was great.”  He sighed and leaned back in his chair.  “Thanks for that, Jack.  I don’t think I would have thought of that without the movie last night.”

“I’m glad it helped,” Jack said.

And help it apparently had, in completely unexpected ways.  After breakfast and a shower, Daniel settled down to work on his report, and seemed to have less trouble writing about the attack.  Not no trouble.  Jack kept him well supplied with coffee and comfort food, and the other man spent long stretches of time staring out windows with a steaming beverage in his hands, cupped close to his face.

Jack let him stew, figuring that asking too many questions right now would not be beneficial, but he stayed nearby, handy in case Daniel needed an ear.

Finally, Daniel spoke.  “Jack, do I put the team in danger?  I mean, the way people focus on me, does my presence place the team in jeopardy?”

Jack’s eyebrows rose.  “I wouldn’t say that,” he replied carefully.  “There are times when your presence attracts attention we might not have gotten otherwise, but that’s a two way street, and the direction most often traveled leaves us in green pastures.”

Daniel looked up at him, face blank, one eyebrow politely raised.  “Huh?” he said.

Dropping his head, Jack let out a chuckling sigh.  “More than three-quarters of the time, it’s because people notice you, because they respond to you, that Sam, Teal’c and I don’t wind up in some local lock up.  Yes, sometimes your presence endangers the team.  But far more often, your presence is all that keeps us from disaster.”

“Do you really think that?”

“I do, Daniel.  It’s not the sort of thing I’d say if I didn’t believe it.  And don’t worry too much about the jeopardy thing, either.  There are times when I endanger the team, or Sam does.  There are lots of times when Teal’c’s presence puts us at risk because he’s a Jaffa.  It’s just a fact of life.”

Daniel gazed at him thoughtfully, then nodded once and returned to his report.  Jack watched him for a minute, then decided he didn’t need an audience.  He picked up a book and settle down on the sofa to read about the history of the tank.  Daniel continued to scribble away.  Around noon, Jack called a halt.  “What, are you writing a novel?”

The archeologist turned and _looked_ at him.  Then he turned back and flipped the pages till he reached the colonel’s report.  Pointing at it, he began speaking in a tone that vibrated with irritation.  “Jack, when you write a report, you include all sorts of information you observed about the military development of the cultures we meet, the weapons you noticed, and that sort of thing, right?”

Jack nodded, a little surprised by the intensity of the reaction.  “Yes.”

“Well, my report contains as much cultural information as I can possibly include.  Often that means making suppositions about why people behave the way they do, and what the behavior I observe implies about their culture.  There’s a lot of varied cultural implications in what happened to us, and to me in particular.  The religion also requires some attention.  My report isn’t merely a compilation of events, anymore than yours is.”

“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to suggest you were overdoing it,” Jack said.  “But you should take a break.  It’s time to eat, and digestion works better if you’re not actively working on something that stresses you out.”

Daniel sighed.  “Fine.”

 They headed into the kitchen and Jack pulled out the bread, lunch meat, cheese and condiments for sandwiches.  Daniel started putting a sandwich together without speaking, and Jack wished he hadn’t made the flippant remark.  He hadn’t expected the strong reaction, though.

“Do you even read my reports?” Daniel asked suddenly.

“Um . . . do you read mine?”

“Yes.”

The single syllable reverberated, and Jack flushed.  “I skim them,” he said defensively.  “I don’t understand half of what you and Carter get on about in your reports, so there’s not much point in my expending several hours of reading and dictionary time on them.  I get a feel for what you had to say, then I move on.”

“Jack, I don’t believe you can’t understand my reports,” Daniel said.  “I’m not that . . . I just don’t believe it.”

“You should,” Jack said.  “You lose me pretty quickly when you start getting into the sociology and stuff like that.  I like things simple and straightforward, and cultural analysis isn’t that.”

Daniel’s brows drew together.  “No, I guess not.  But Sam’s stuff is all science.  That’s about as straightforward as you can get.”

“Assuming you have a grounding in the material.  I’m an amateur astronomer, but that’s as far as it goes.  I don’t begin to understand astrophysics, and she gets even more impenetrable when she starts writing outside of her field.  It’s like she can apply common terms to things she understands completely, but she has to go into gobbledygook when she starts talking about stuff she doesn’t know like the back of her hand.”

Daniel raised his eyebrows, then shrugged.  “That’s true enough.  But Jack, no matter how hard you try to persuade us otherwise, we know you’re not stupid.  You _could_ understand it.”

“It’s not my job to understand it,” Jack said frankly.  “It’s my job to keep my mind on strategic and tactical assessment, military hardware, and leave the soft science stuff to you and the hard science stuff to Carter.  I could probably wrap my mind around what you say, but it would take hours and some tutoring, I think.”

“It might be worth the time,” Daniel said, and Jack realized that he was offering.

“How’s this?” he said.  “I’ll read this report.  For one thing, it sounds like there’s stuff that happened that you forgot to mention when you told me what happened right before the debriefing.”

Daniel gave him a measuring look, as if trying to decide whether or not Jack was making fun of him, then said, “Sure.  That works.”

“Then afterwards, when you’re so frustrated by my obtuseness that you can’t see straight, you’ll let this notion go.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow.  “Only if you really try,” he said.  “If you just play games, I’m not -”

“No games, Daniel,” Jack assured him, mildly hurt.  “Not with this report, certainly.”

“Does it matter which report it is?” Daniel asked, looking curious.

Jack raised his eyebrows.  “I guess not, but this one . . . I’d think it was more . . .”

Daniel shook his head and laughed.  “I don’t really want to talk about it right now, Jack.”  He picked up his sandwich and walked out towards the living room.  “Isn’t there a sequel to that movie we watched last night?”

“There is,” Jack said.  “You want to watch it?”

“It could be fun,” Daniel said, grinning.

They sat like a couple of kids on the sofa in the living room eating sandwiches, chips and drinking soda while they watched Toy Story 2.  Daniel laughed uninhibitedly at the jokes, and Jack could see he got a kick out of it.  He got a kick out of watching Daniel enjoy it so much.  He decided that they were going to have to watch more kids’ movies.  The more time he spent with Daniel, the more it seemed likely that ordinary childish fun had made up very little of his childhood.  They had HoHos for dessert, and Jack reflected that Sam would be appalled.  The thought gave him no real concern, oddly enough.

When they’d eaten, Daniel settled back down on the floor in front of the coffee table to finish his report.  Evidently he’d mostly finished it earlier, because it only took him about an hour.  He tossed the pen down, stretched his arms up high and said, “I’d suggest you read it now, but I doubt you could read my handwriting.”

“Are you going to type it up yourself?” Jack asked suspiciously.

“Actually, no.  I think it will be Tony’s first real test.”

“You want him to . . .”  Jack paused, unsure how to phrase the next thing he wanted to say.  “I mean, how much do you want him to know about what happened?”

“I already told him the outline version, figuring he’d hear an earful on base.  And Sam told me he got some jackass confronting him yesterday at lunch with one of the weirder versions of events that’s going around.”  Daniel grinned, though there was pain in his eyes.

“Sam told you?” Jack asked, startled.  In his experience, Sam would have been more likely to keep her mouth shut on the subject to avoid upsetting Daniel.

“Actually, I guess she told Teal’c, and he mentioned it.”  Daniel gave him a dry look.  “Sam was annoyed, but tried to hide it, but at that point she didn’t have much choice.  She says he shut the guy down pretty effectively, too.  Saved her from having to do it.”

“Which jackass?” Jack asked.

Daniel shrugged as he put away his papers and books.  “I didn’t ask, and she didn’t volunteer the information.  I think I’m better off not knowing.”  Jack nodded but resolved to ask Sam for a few more details when he got the chance.  And he thought he’d better find a way to get a feel for what exactly was being passed around.  There was gossip, and there was the spreading of malicious rumors.  This was fast getting out of hand.  “Anyway,” Daniel said, “I think he should have the details if he’s going to be faced with people who like to spread stories.”

“That seems reasonable,” Jack said.

“And it will make another good test,” Daniel said.  “If he can’t handle typing that up, then he doesn’t need to be here.”

Jack nodded slowly, and decided to take Sciaparelli aside sometime during the barbecue to give him advice on handling Daniel on emotional issues.  The man had only been around for two days, it was hardly fair to dump him in to sink or swim.

“So, what do you want to do with the rest of the day?” Jack asked.

“I was thinking I’d teach you to play chess better, since you were complaining that I don’t teach you, I just beat you.”  Daniel was giving him a challenging look, and Jack glared at him.  “Well, you said I was giving Cassie an unfair advantage, and I’m just giving you the chance to make up for it.”

“I thought you couldn’t teach an old dog new tricks?”

“If you’re not interested . . .” Daniel said.

“Hey, I’m game.  You’re the one who made it out to be an impossibility.”

Daniel shrugged and sat down on the sofa in front of the chess board.  Jack sat across from him and prepared himself for a boring lecture.  Instead, Daniel started the game, and talked him through the reasons behind all of his moves.  Jack listened carefully, not wanting to be accused of not ‘taking advantage of the opportunity.’  It did help, a little, but since Daniel was faced with different situations than he was, it didn’t always connect with things he was doing.  He still lost pretty badly.

“Maybe you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” Jack said, sighing.

Daniel blinked at him.  “That was just the first step.  Let’s play again.”

Jack raised an eyebrow, but he nodded.  Daniel grinned at him, and they started a new game.  This time, Daniel remained silent regarding his own moves, but he quizzed Jack about his.  When Jack made a move, he asked him the reasoning behind it.  Then he proceeded to give him options and the benefits of the various possible moves.  Jack changed his choices a couple of times, and began to see the point of Daniel’s method.  If he hadn’t started out by explaining how he thought about it, Jack would have gone nuts over the attempt to explain his options.  Jack still lost, but he was gaining ground.

“Now what?” Jack asked.

“Two more games, and then I’ll be done,” Daniel said.

The third game was very like the second, but instead of telling Jack his options, Daniel asked him what the moves he could see were, and what the potential consequences were.  He helped him out a bit with that, extending his consideration to the next several moves beyond the turn they were actually on.  Jack could get his mind around that idea.  After all, he was damned good at tactics, but chess wasn’t anything like real tactics.  Too many fiddly rules that wouldn’t apply in the real world.

It was a question of really absorbing the rules and making them work in the fake world of the game.  He’d just never cared enough before now.  The third game was still a loss, but he had a better idea of why he’d lost, which was a step in the right direction.

At the start of the fourth game, Daniel said, “Okay, now, you can ask me questions, but I’m not volunteering anything.  Jack raised an eyebrow and they started to play.  Twice, and twice only, did he ask for Daniel’s help, but he came the closest he ever had to beating the man.

“See,” Daniel said.  “I told you you could do this, Jack.  But would you listen to me?”

“That’s straying dangerously close to an ‘I told you so,’” Jack commented.

Daniel blinked at him, then quirked an eyebrow.  “It’s not close, Jack.  It is an ‘I told you so.’”  He grinned.  “I did.  I told you so.”

“Daniel!”

“So, you want to play another game?  No holds barred?”  Again, there was a challenging look in Daniel’s eyes that Jack couldn’t resist.  They played, and this time, Jack could see Daniel raising his eyebrows at moves, looking impressed and a little pushed, as if Jack was actually making good moves that he was having trouble countering.

After that fifth game, though, Jack had had enough chess for one evening.  “Why don’t we go for a walk,” he suggested.

“Sure,” Daniel said.

As they walked past Mrs. Withers’ house, Jack saw the curtains twitch, and hoped the nosy old broad noticed that they weren’t holding hands.

“You know, Jack, I never do this anymore,” Daniel said.  Jack tilted his head curiously and Daniel went on.  “Just go on walks, when I’m not on a mission.”

Jack nodded.  “I don’t do it much either,” he replied.

“I feel like we need someone on our six,” Daniel remarked, glancing behind them at the dark, quiet street.  “Like we shouldn’t be out here without Teal’c and Sam.”

Jack laughed.  “I know what you mean,” he said.  “It gets to the point where your team seems like a part of you.”  Then he sobered.  “In an ordinary command, they’d probably break us up because of it.  They’d be worried that we couldn’t be sufficiently detached from our personal feelings to focus on the mission rather than the people.”

Daniel shrugged, the movement heard and sensed rather than seen in the dark night.  “If they want someone who’s focused on the mission rather than people, Jack, then they should send me home.”

“Not going to happen, Daniel,” Jack said.

“Not unless they put some gung ho military guy in charge of the SGC,” Daniel said.  “After all, General Hammond is getting . . . well, he was supposed to retire three years ago.”  He shook his head.  “If we get some hard ass in there, I’ll be off the team fast than you can blink, he’d probably put you in an administrative position, and Sam . . . well, Sam might be left with a team, but he might just as easily take her off teams altogether and keep her on base given her knowledge.  Who knows what he’d do with Teal’c, though, or Nyan.  Refugee status might not make much difference to that type of guy.”

“It’s not going to happen, Daniel,” Jack said.  “Hammond doesn’t have to retire, and if he doesn’t choose to, they’d have to have a pretty good reason for pulling him out of the SGC.”

Daniel walked on in silence for a bit, then he said, “Is Hammond afraid I’ll freeze up out there?”

“I don’t know, Daniel,” Jack said honestly.  “I think he’s concerned that you’re not really dealing with what happened, but sort of sitting on it instead.”

“We’ve talked about it.  We’ve talked about it more than once.”

“I know that,” Jack said.

“It’s not enough, is it?”  Daniel sighed.

“I think he might just be using this as an excuse to give us all a little enforced downtime.  Sam, Teal’c and I are busy, but you . . . you’re on the go constantly.  Not just our team, but other teams, all the translation work you do.  I think he may just be keeping us on planet to guarantee that we all get some rest.”

“Great,” Daniel said.  “And meanwhile, there are people who undoubtedly think I’m shirking.”

“Daniel, you can’t control what other people think, and you shouldn’t make decisions based on it either.  There are jackasses everywhere, and there’s not a whole hell of a lot you can do about them.”

“No, that’s true enough,” Daniel said.  “I could wish for some neutrality on the subject of Dr. Daniel Jackson, though.”

“Oh come on, Daniel.  Neutrality sucks.”

“I don’t know about that, Jack.  People either loathe me or expect me to move mountains.  It might be nice to know someone who just thought of me as a guy they know.”

“I’m sure that’s how the people in your apartment complex view you,” Jack said.

“Actually, no,” Daniel said.  “My next door neighbor is very suspicious of me because I don’t talk much about what I do.  But to make up for it, the woman across the way from her, who thinks Alicia is a nosy biddy, thinks I’m sweet, that I can open jars that she can’t, that I know how to fix her sink and that I work too hard.”

“Well, the lady across the hall knows you better than Alicia does, then -- wait, you fixed her sink?”

Daniel shrugged.  “She needed a washer.  It was no big deal.”

They had walked around the block and were once more approaching Jack’s house.  “I didn’t know you were a plumber.”

“It was a washer, Jack,” Daniel said deprecatingly as they unlocked the front door and went into the house.

“Still, hidden talents.”

“Well, I’m heading off to bed.  If rest is what Hammond wants, he should be happy.  I’ve been sleeping more these last couple of weeks than I have in years.”

“Good night, Daniel,” Jack said.  He got things cleaned up and locked down and headed up to bed himself.


	42. Chapter 42

Nyan looked distinctly uncomfortable wearing jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers, Daniel thought, watching Sam, Teal’c and Nyan climb out of Sam’s tiny car.  All of Nyan’s garments bore definite signs of having been picked out by Sam, which didn’t surprise Daniel in the slightest.

He turned and called over his shoulder to Janet.  “Sam’s here.”

“Good,” the doctor replied.  “Now we’re just waiting on Tony.  You did tell him noon and give him directions?”

“Yes Janet,” he replied.  Jack and Daniel had showed up a little early, and Jack was playing catch with Cassie while Janet finished getting things ready for lunch.  Daniel walked over and opened the door, welcoming them in.

Sam gave Nyan’s arm a squeeze and went straight for the kitchen.  “Your city is beautiful,” Nyan said.

Daniel smiled.  “Thank you, Nyan.  Colorado Springs is a pretty place.”

“I have not spent much time in cities over the past few years, but most of the cities in my homeland are cheerless places.”

“The places we live on Chulak are visually appealing,” Teal’c said, “but there is no freedom there.”  There seemed to be nothing to say to that, and an awkward silence fell for a moment.  “Where is O’Neill?” Teal’c asked.

“Out back with Cassie,” Daniel said.

Giving them both a regal nod, Teal’c walked towards the back door of the house, leaving Nyan and Daniel together.  Nyan looked anywhere but at Daniel’s face.

“How are you feeling?” Daniel asked.

“I am not sure,” Nyan admitted, finally meeting Daniel’s eyes.  What he saw there seemed to reassure him.  “These clothes are very odd, but Major Carter assures me that they are what people wear here, and I see that she is right.”

Daniel glanced down at his own worn jeans and comfortable t-shirt.  “Well, there are other options,” Daniel said.  “Tell you what, when Sam takes you shopping, which I guarantee you will happen, I’ll come too.  I’ll help you find things you’ll be more comfortable wearing, and Sam can tell you when it’s appropriate to wear them.”

“That would be wonderful,” Nyan said.  “Teal’c said that she helps him to find clothing that is appropriate, but he is not wearing these stiff pants.”

“Jeans do soften as you wear them,” Daniel said, “but as I said, there are other options.”

Nyan was looking around.  “So this is where the physician from your base lives?”  Daniel glanced around and nodded.  “She must be very well thought of to have been assigned such housing.”

Daniel blinked.  “We don’t have assigned housing of that sort,” he said.  “Janet bought this house and decorated it herself.”

“Your housing is not provided and assigned by the government?”

“Not for the most part.  I believe there is government housing available to members of the military, but most people find their own.”  Daniel tilted his head.  “Does everyone have assigned housing in Bedrosia?”

“And in Optrica, I believe,” Nyan said.  “Though I have no real proof of that.  From what little I have heard, though, our Optrican enemies seem to live in much the same way we do.”  He sighed glumly.  “We have fought a war for generations over the truth or myth of the gateway, and the war will go on, despite the fact that the truth is now known.”

Daniel grimaced and put an arm around the other man’s shoulders.  “I know, Nyan.  I wish there was something we can do about it.”

“There is not,” Nyan said.  “Not at this time, certainly.”  He smiled up at Daniel.  “Perhaps you could show me this dwelling?  I am certain there are things I could learn from it about your culture.”

Daniel nodded and he stuck his head into the kitchen.  “Janet, you mind if I give Nyan the fifty cent tour?”

“Go ahead,” Janet said, smiling, “but we’ll be eating soon, so don’t take too long.  And please, if you two are going to wax eloquent on the cultural significance of things in my bathroom, don’t share.”

Daniel laughed.  “Okay, Janet,” he said, then he turned to Nyan.  “You want to start upstairs or downstairs?”

“Perhaps upstairs,” Nyan said.  They wandered through the upstairs, Daniel pointing out the purposes of the rooms, Nyan asking questions, and Daniel thinking about Janet’s reactions should she hear his answers to questions regarding bathing habits and hygiene.  He wondered if an article such as “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” would be of any help to Nyan, tongue in cheek though it was.  He’d have to see if he could unearth it.  Or . . . maybe not.

Nyan looked out the back window of the spare bedroom.  “Is that . . . Cassie?”

Daniel looked down at where Cassie, Jack and Teal’c were playing croquet -- croquet? -- on the back lawn.  “Yes, that’s Cassie.”

“And she is . . . like me . . . in a sense.  A refugee from her world?”

Daniel nodded sadly.  “In a sense.  There’s no one left alive on her world.  They were all destroyed by an illness created by a Goa’uld.  She was . . . she was sent here as a Trojan horse.”

“A what?” Nyan asked.

“A Trojan horse,” Daniel repeated.  “Once, long ago, there was a city called Troy that was at war with a city called Sparta.  The conflict had reached an impasse, and the Spartans decided to try guile.”

“In what way?”

“They built a huge horse --”  Nyan looked blank and Daniel realized that he’d better be more explicit.  He remembered seeing something on Cassie’s wall and took Nyan back to her bedroom and pointed at a wall calendar.  “That’s a horse.”

Nyan looked at the photograph of a chestnut stallion standing in a meadow.  “I see.  It is a very attractive animal.  What is it used for?”

“Riding, pulling carts, that sort of thing.”  Nyan nodded.  “So, the Spartans built a representation of a horse that was enormous and left it in front of the gates of Troy, and the Trojans took it as a peace offering.”

Nyan nodded, and his lips moved as he mouthed the words, comparing the way the city names became the names of the people who lived in them, Daniel thought.

“But unbeknownst to the Trojans, the Spartans had hidden men inside the horse, who snuck out in the dark of night and opened the city gates to let their forces in, allowing Sparta to win the war and sack Troy.”

“I see.  And this is part of your history?”

“Yes and no.  It’s far enough back in time that we aren’t actually sure what’s fact and what’s legend,” Daniel said.  “But the city of Troy has been found by archeologists and is being explored.  For a long time, it was thought to be pure myth, but . . . well, you understand how that works.”

Nyan nodded fervently.  “So, Cassie was sent here, to Earth, as a Trojan horse.  Which means that she was some kind of threat?”

“There was a bomb very cleverly hidden within her,” Daniel said, thinking back on that awful time when they were certain that the little girl was going to die, taking most of the base with her, and there was nothing they could do about it.  “Fortunately, everything turned out all right, and Janet adopted her.”

There were footsteps in the hall and they both turned to see Janet leaning in.  “What are you doing in here?” she asked.  “Something deep and anthropological?”

“Actually, historical,” Daniel said.  “I was explaining the Trojan horse to him.”  She raised an eyebrow, and Daniel pointed to the calendar.

Her eyes widened with comprehension.  “Ah, I see.  Well, come downstairs.  It’s time for lunch.”  Turning she preceded them.

As they followed her, Nyan said, “Is there some significance to this meal?  Culturally?”

Daniel shrugged.  “Nope, it’s just lunch.”  He tilted his head.  “In most of the countries on this planet, the western countries at least, you have three main meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner.”  Nyan was listening closely.  “In some places the names will change, I mean, apart from language differences.”  He stopped.  “Do you and the Optricans speak different languages?”

“Yes,” Nyan said.

“Do you know the Optrican language?”

“Of course,” Nyan replied, looking perplexed.  “It’s not so different that it can’t be understand.  Why, is that not the case here?”

Daniel blinked, then said, “Espanol es muy differente de Ingles.”

Nyan’s eyes widened.  “What . . . what did you say?”

“That was Spanish,” Daniel said.  “There are many languages spoken on this continent, and Spanish is one of the most common.”

“Those were words, in another language?” Nyan asked.

Daniel nodded.  “I’ll show you some more languages later.  Now we’d better hurry or Janet will have our hides.”

Lunch was Boston baked beans and salad and very messy broiled ribs.  Tony still hadn’t come when they were done eating and Janet was annoyed, but not expressing it, except to her croquet ball.

“Janet!” Sam exclaimed.  “You’re not supposed to hit your ball into the next yard.”

The doctor flushed and shrugged as she went to fetch her ball.  Jack turned toward the house and said, “I’ll be back in a minute.”  Daniel took his turn, and they continued to play until Jack came back out of the house with Tony.

At the sight of the young lieutenant, Janet’s eyes went wide.  “Are you all right?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Tony said, but Daniel couldn’t help wondering if that was strictly true.  His knuckles were red and raw, and his arms and shirt were streaked with what looked like axle grease.

“You’re not fine,” Janet said and bustled over, taking him back into the house.

“What happened?” Sam asked.

“Blowout on the freeway in his rental car,” Jack said.  “And the jack broke, so . . . it wasn’t pretty.  The rental company came out with a fresh car for him, but it took a while and he didn’t have the number here, and the folks at the mountain wouldn’t give it to him on his cell phone, so he couldn’t let us know what was up.”

Daniel went inside, handing his mallet off to Jack.  “You guys keep playing,” he said.

“Where are you going?”

“To check on my assistant,” Daniel said.

He went inside and heard Tony speaking from the kitchen.  “I would have gone home first, but I live across town and I didn’t have any way to get in touch with you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Janet said soothingly.

Daniel turned the corner into the kitchen to find that Janet had gotten the filthy shirt off and had pulled the young man to the sink where she was carefully washing his damaged knuckles.  “Washing it is pointless,” he said.  “It’s ruined.  You might as well toss it out and I’ll just skip the party.”

“There’s no reason for a ruined shirt to mean you have to go home, Tony,” Janet said.  “You’re here, you should stay.”

“I’m not dressed,” Tony complained, and Daniel could understand his point.  A sleeveless undershirt was not likely to make the man comfortable in the presence of relative strangers, particularly not when one of them was a fourteen-year-old girl.

Without speaking, he backed out of the kitchen and went out to Jack’s truck.  Behind the seat he found what he expected, a small duffle with some clothes in it.  Jack was definitely the ‘Boy Scout’ type.  He always had a change of clothes with him.  Daniel dug out a plain blue button front shirt out of the bag, knowing Jack wouldn’t mind, and took it inside.

They had moved away from the sink and she was slathering on antibacterial cream.  “Hold still,” Janet said.

Daniel walked up and hung the shirt over the back of a chair.  “It’s a little wrinkled, but it should work,”  he said, grinning at the startled looks they both gave him.  He walked over and picked up the shirt Tony had been wearing and tossed it in the trash then went and sat down.  “I’m glad you made it,” he said.  “And we’ll have to get you a phone list so this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.”

“That would be good,” Tony said, then he hissed.  “This isn’t exactly the way I’d have chosen to meet you, ma’am.”

“I don’t know why not,” she said dryly.  “I meet most of my co-workers for the first time when they’ve just been injured.  Why should you be any different?”

He looked at her earnestly.  “Because this is a barbecue, it’s supposed to be a time when we can all forget work, right?”

Janet raised her eyes from Tony’s hand briefly to his face, then lowered them again.  “Right,” she said, sounding vaguely amused.  “Well, I patch people up at home all the time, too, so it’s not a big deal.”

“Doesn’t look like you’re going to be doing much typing tomorrow,” Daniel said regretfully, looking at Tony’s hands.

“I don’t know about that, sir,” Tony said.

“Daniel,” Daniel corrected.

“Depends on how sore your hands are tomorrow,” Janet said.  “I would think you’d be all right.”

“I’ll be fine,” Tony said.  “And, ma’am, if you don’t mind, I’m starving, and I can smell those beans from here.”

“Right,” Janet said, smiling.  “You go on outside with the others and I’ll bring you a plate.”

Tony stood up and put on Jack’s shirt.  “Thanks, Daniel.”

“Actually, you should thank Jack.  It’s one of his.”

The lieutenant stopped in mid-button.  “Does he know?”

“Don’t worry about it, Tony.  He won’t mind,” Daniel said.  “Get those buttons done, because I’m dragging you out there in a minute whether you do or don’t.”

* * *

Giving his new boss an incredulous look, Tony did as he was told.  This was an unexpected afternoon.  He’d figured on stopping by, explaining why he’d been late and then going home to a microwave dinner on his own.  He hadn’t figured on the doctor grabbing him and forcing him to hold still while she mothered him, then Dr. Jackson providing him with fresh clothing and insisting that he join the party.

They went out into the backyard where everyone was still playing croquet, which was not exactly how Tony would have imagined Colonel O’Neill spending a Sunday afternoon.  Then he noticed the young girl who was clearly in charge of the activities and he understood.  She was cute as a bug, and she reminded him a bit of his youngest sister.  Bossy, opinionated and very good at wrapping adults around her little finger.

She bounced over as soon as he and Daniel came out of the house and stopped right in front of him.  “You okay?  Did my mom fix you up?”

“I’m fine,” he said.  “Thanks for asking.”

She started to grab his hand to drag him over to the game, but stopped as she saw the bandages.  “Um . . . I thought you might want to play croquet?” she said uncertainly.

“He hasn’t had lunch yet, Cassie,” Dr. Fraiser said from behind him.  “Give him a minute to catch his breath.  Have you even introduced yourself yet?”

“Oh.”  The girl’s eyes were startled.  “I’m sorry, Lt. Sciaparelli.  I’m Cassie.”  She stuck out a hand, then flushed and started to pull it back, clearly remembering his bandages.

He took her hand gently and shook it.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Cassie.  You can call me Tony, okay?”

She smiled and said, “Thanks.”  Then she ran off to the game.

Dr. Fraiser put the plate down on the table and gave him an amused look.  “You’ve made a conquest, I see,” she said.

“A conquest?” Tony asked, knitting his brows.  “She’s just like my little sister Gina.  Gina will be fifteen in March.  How old is Cassie?”

“Fifteen in January,” the girl’s mother said.

“Maybe when Gina comes out to visit me in August, we should get them together.”

Dr. Fraiser grinned.  “That sounds like a plan.  You have a close family?”

“We’re Italian,” Tony said, shrugging.  Fraiser nodded, obviously understanding.  She sat down with him and he ate.  “This is really good,” he said.

“Thanks.”  She looked over at the others, who were back playing their game.  “Tell me about yourself.”

“There’s not much to tell,” Tony said.  “I’m from upstate New York.  I have three sisters and two brothers, and my mother was talking about wanting more children around the house last time I visited.  I really hope she was talking about wanting grandchildren.  My oldest younger sister got married last year, so that’s a fair possibility.”

“Are you the oldest?”

Tony nodded.  “I’m twenty-four, Theresa is a year younger, Michael is twenty-one, Peter is eighteen, Bernadette is sixteen and Gina is fourteen.”

“That’s quite a spread.  I’ve never had a child of my own.  My marriage didn’t last very long, and being a doctor doesn’t leave much time for looking.”

“Is Cassie a foster child, then?”

The doctor gave him an odd look.  “She’s adopted.  I thought you were reading through the mission logs.”

“I am,” he said, blinking.  “Why do you ask?”

“Cassie comes up in them,” she said, a distant look in her eyes as she looked across at her daughter.  “She’s from . . . a faraway place.”

He looked over at the girl who was now directing Colonel O’Neill in the correct way to hold his mallet.  Evidently he’d been doing it wrong.  “I see,” he said.  He’d have to find that mission report.  “How long has she been with you?”

“A little more than two years,” she said.  “We had a party a few months back to celebrate two years.”

“I would never guess that she’s from . . . faraway,” he said.

“Does it change your desire to bring Gina to meet her?” Fraiser asked neutrally.

“Do you mind if I ask . . . is she human?  I mean, normal human . . . I mean . . . I haven’t gotten very far through the reports yet.”

The doctor didn’t seem even vaguely offended.  “She’s human.  She’s a perfectly normal human girl with one small difference.  Have you been told anything about naquadah yet?”

He nodded, not at all sure where this was heading.

“One thing it’s very good for is enhancing the strength of explosions,” she said.  He nodded again.  “Cassie has naquadah in her blood.”

“What?”  He looked at the girl.  “Why?”

There was pain in the doctor’s voice when she spoke again, very quietly.  “Cassie lived on a world where we had a research station to observe a distant star that was turning into a black hole.  A Goa’uld went there, Nirti, and introduced an illness into the population to kill everyone, everyone except Cassie.  She took Cassie and created the makings of a bomb inside her that was armed by a trip through the stargate.  Nirti’s intention was that we would take the child, who was all alone on a planet of dead people, home with us and thus arm the bomb and blow up the stargate and the base.”

Tony looked again at the child, playing so happily with the others.  “She seems perfectly normal.”

“We were incredibly lucky.”  She shrugged.  “But I suppose this does mean you won’t want Gina to come visit with her.”

“Why would it?” he replied, making her raise an eyebrow.  “They’re still both fourteen-year-old girls.  Gina’s getting to the age where she thinks visiting her older brother is a drag, so meeting someone her own age might make the visit worthwhile for her.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Fraiser said.  “Have you had enough?  Do you need a second helping?”

“No, I’m fine,” he said, smiling.

“Well, then, let me get you a piece of pie.”  She was up and away before he could say anything, taking his empty plate with her.

A moment later, Major Carter flopped down across from him.  “I have been informed that I am a great disappointment as a croquet player,” she announced.

“Have you?” he asked, quirking a grin at her.

“I have,” she said, glancing back at the petty tyrant in pigtails.  “So, how are your hands?”

He shrugged.  “They hurt,” he said.  “But don’t tell anyone.  Dr. Jackson seems to think this means I can’t type.”

Carter grinned.  “Whereas if Daniel got hurt that way, he would claim there was nothing wrong and nothing he couldn’t do.”

“Really?” he asked.  “When Colonel O’Neill told me I would have to be aware of Dr. Jackson’s health and physical well being, I thought he was . . . well, I’m not sure what I thought.”

“You thought he was exaggerating,” Carter said.  Tony flushed and looked down at the bandages on his hands.  He just couldn’t admit to having thought a full bird colonel was exaggerating.  “Look, if Daniel had a limb partially severed, hanging off, dripping blood, he’d probably admit he was hurt.  Other than that, he’s fine.  He was shot in the leg, he told us he was fine.  He was held for three days in an underwater prison, tortured, came out dehydrated and malnourished, and he told us he was fine.  Have you read the mission report for the Land of Light yet?”

“Yes,” Tony said, raising an eyebrow.

“Daniel didn’t want to admit that he was injured in any way because he didn’t want to make either Colonel O’Neill or Teal’c feel guilty, the colonel for attacking him and Teal’c for losing him.  It wasn’t until he got back and Janet was examining him and found the cracked ribs and entire torso covered with bruises and numerous other minor injuries that he admitted to any pain at all.”

“Good Lord.”  Tony looked across at the archeologist, who was carefully lining up his mallet with the ball he intended to hit.  “Do any of the rest of you have that particular hang up?”

Carter sighed.  “Well, Teal’c usually says he’s fine, but with Teal’c it’s usually true.  His symbiote heals him from most injuries,” she said.  “And when it’s been injured sufficiently that it’s capacity to heal him has been compromised, he tells us.”  She grimaced.  “But then there’s Colonel O’Neill, who won’t admit to serious injuries under pain of death, but who whines like a five-year-old when he gets a splinter.”

“I heard that!” said a testy voice and they both looked up to see Colonel O’Neill approaching.

“What sir?” Carter asked, an expression of innocent perplexity on her face.  Tony knew he had to look guilty as sin, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

“A five-year-old, Carter?  I thought I sounded at least six.”

She blinked disingenuously up at her commanding officer.  “I don’t know what you mean, sir,” she said.

Shrugging, Colonel O’Neill turned to Tony.  “So, Sciaparelli, are you up to playing croquet, do you think?”

“I’m fine,” he said, then choked as he saw the expression on Carter’s face.  “I mean, I know I’m up to it,” he hastened to say.

“Been telling you about our Daniel, has she?” O’Neill asked.  He nodded.  “Well, I’ve just been ousted from the game.  You able to take my place?”

“Sure, sir,” Tony said.  He got up but just then Dr. Fraiser came out with the pie.  “Oh, um . . . I . . .”

“Sorry, lieutenant, I got a phone call while I was cutting the pie.”

“It’s no big deal,” he said.  “I was going to go join the game.”

Fraiser looked at him, then at O’Neill and Carter and said, “Bring the plate.  I’ll play and you can watch.”

He took the pie and followed.  Evidently she’d read signs that he’d missed.  He walked away, glancing back over his shoulder and shrugging.


	43. Chapter 43

Jack sat down across from Carter and waited until Fraiser and Sciaparelli were out of hearing.  Then he leaned towards her.  “So, you heard Sciaparelli defending Daniel from some loudmouthed soldier boy?” he asked.

Her eyes widened.  “Yes, sir.  I . . . I never meant to say anything to Daniel, and I would have told you on Monday, but Teal’c --”

“Daniel told me how he heard, Carter.  So, what did happen?  What did you hear, and what did Sciaparelli do?  And who was the solider boy?”

She narrated the story, and Jack nodded, not at all happy to hear it.  Marquez had a good record with his team, and his CO had good things to say about him in his evaluations.  While he’d been crass and out of line, he hadn’t gone far enough across the line to be removed from the program against the objections that would be raised.

On the other hand, that might be used to his advantage.  If he could put the fear of O’Neill into the man sufficiently, maybe Marquez would tell him what other rumors he might have heard.

“I think you’re right.  Sciaparelli handled it perfectly.”  Sam nodded, smiling.  “Now, have you heard any other stories?  Not that anyone would tell you, but things you might have overheard?”

Her smile faded.  “No, sir,” she said.  “But there have been a few incidents where I’m sure that people were talking about it but when I came in they shut up.  And a couple of younger lieutenants came to me to ask if what they were hearing was true.  They wouldn’t tell me who they’d heard it from, but they story they had was pretty gruesome.  I told them I couldn’t tell them what happened, but that it hadn’t been what they’d heard or anything they were likely to hear.”

Jack nodded.  “Good to hear that they’re coming to someone sensible with the question,” he said.  “I’m waiting for the day someone comes up to Daniel and asks him.”

Carter blanched.  “That won’t be pretty.”

“Especially since there’s no  knowing how Daniel will react,” Jack said.  “He could be perfectly calm about it, he could go ballistic, or he could just close down completely.  I don’t have a great road map to his emotional reactions right now.”

“What are you going to do about all the talk, sir?  I haven’t been sure how to handle it.  Since no one’s talking to me, there’s not a lot I can do about it.  Teal’c feels the same way.  Nyan says you’ve talked about it with him already.”

“I have.  I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do, but I have to do something.  Things are just getting too damned out of hand.”

Carter was looking at him, concern in her eyes.  “You feel guilty over what happened, don’t you?”

“Don’t you?” he asked.

She nodded.  “Of course I do.  But, sir, there was nothing we could have done.”

“I know that,” Jack said, “in here.”  He pointed to his head.  Thumping his hand into his belly, he went on.  “But not down here.”

She gave him a sick smile.  “I can understand that, sir.  I don’t wish it had been me, but why does it always have to be Daniel?”

Jack sighed and didn’t answer, looking instead to see Daniel watching them, a vertical line between his brows.  He raised his eyebrow at the man, who gave him a dubious look and made as though he was going to cross to them.  Cassie grabbed his arm and distracted him before he got very far, though, for which Jack was very grateful.  He didn’t want to try and cover up the conversation he’d been having with Carter, but he also didn’t want to talk about this with Daniel.  Not here, especially.  The man had been through enough public hell with regard to this already.

“Carter, I don’t think there’s a satisfactory answer to that question,” Jack said.

“Probably not,” she agreed.

The croquet game ended and everyone came to join them at the table, Daniel sitting down next to Carter and giving them both suspicious looks, but with the press of people, he couldn’t ask his questions.  Jack knew, however, that he was going to start demanding answers as soon as they were in the truck on the way home.

“Colonel, I’d like to thank you for the loan of the shirt,” Tony said suddenly at his elbow.

“Shirt?” he asked, puzzled.  Then he glanced down at the shirt the man was wearing.  “Oh, not a problem.  Glad to have helped.”

Conversation then became general as they all discussed what they wanted to do.  Cassie suggested charades, but her mother firmly vetoed that.

“Do you often have these gatherings?” Nyan asked.  “It seems very refreshing and most enjoyable.”

“Don’t you have . . . I mean --”  Fraiser broke off, obviously embarrassed at having brought up the place he must be missing.

“There are gatherings on Bedrosia, of course,” Nyan said.  “But they are primarily held among family groups and clans.  My clan was nearly wiped out in an attack by the Optricans, and all the remaining members found other clans to take them in.  I was not . . . I did not find a clan to accept me, so such gatherings were closed to me.”  Jack saw Sam’s face crease with sympathy, but Nyan saw the same look and shook his head.  “I did not look for one, Major Carter,” he said.  “I became very focused on my work, I wanted to prove the Bedrosia theory so that the war could end.”

Daniel reached out and squeezed the other archeologist’s shoulder.  Teal’c cleared his throat and said, “Perhaps one day your planet will find peace, Nyan.”

Nyan sighed.  “Perhaps they will, but having seen what happened when the Optrican theory was proven, I now see that my work would never have stopped the war.  Even if I’d found incontrovertible evidence, the Optricans would have reacted the way my people did.  They must choose to accept their differences before any peace can come.”  He shrugged.  “I am not sure now, knowing what the soldiers of my homeland did to your people, that I would choose to go back there.”

“What did they do?” Cassie asked soberly, and Jack saw Daniel flinch.

“Cassie,” her mother said warningly.  “I told you not to ask a lot of questions.”

Nyan’s eyes widened.  “I am sorry.  I did not mean to speak . . . inappropriately.”

Daniel shook his head.  “You’re fine, Nyan, and you are too, Cassie.  It’s only natural that you’d want to know.”  He glanced over at Janet, who gave an infinitesimal shrug.  Then Daniel looked at Sam, and finally over at Jack.  There was no doubting that if anyone had the right to decide how much was said, it was Daniel.  He nodded as Sam had, and Daniel looked back to Cassie.  “We were tortured, Cassie.”  Her eyes went round.  “The man who held us wanted us to answer questions that we couldn’t answer, and he tried to make us.  I don’t think anyone really wants to get into details, but that’s the short of it.”

“What a sphincter!” she growled.

There was silence around the table and Jack met Daniel’s eyes.  They both mouthed ‘sphincter’ with startlement.

With barely suppressed mirth, Sam said, “Sphincter?”

Cassie looked at all of them with bafflement.  “Yeah, sphincter.  You know, like asshole?”

“Cassie!” her mother exclaimed.

Jack tilted his head.  “She’s got a point, Fraiser.”

“Colonel O’Neill!” Fraiser said warningly, glaring at him.

“Why not call a spade a spade?” he asked.

“Not at her age!” Fraiser snapped.

“How old do I have to be before I can call an asshole an asshole?” Cassie demanded.  “If someone hurts my friends, I ought to be able to say that, Mom.”

“There are other words you can use to express both your support and your dislike,” Fraiser said.

“But, Mom --”

“Cassie.”  The name was said calmly, levelly and without overt emphasis, but the girl subsided instantly.  Fraiser definitely had the whole ‘mom’ thing down pat, Jack thought.

After a moment of silence, Cassie looked up and spoke brightly.  “Does anyone need anything to drink?”

“Sure, I’d like another beer,” Jack said.  The others gave orders as well, and Carter got up to go with her.

“Sorry about that,” Fraiser said after they had gone.

“Don’t worry about it,” Daniel said.  “It makes us feel like family, and I like that.”

That shut Fraiser down instantly, and Jack saw Tony smile and nod, as if he knew all too well how much like family that felt.  Not having had a lot of siblings or cousins, Jack didn’t really have a clue.  He’d also been so focused on moving ahead in his life that he hadn’t done much of that teenaged rebellion stuff.

In a fairly noncommittal, ‘I’ll shut up if you tell me to’ voice, Daniel said, “I don’t believe that the culture on Cassie’s homeworld had very many taboo words and phrases.”

“Well, here there are quite a few,” Fraiser said.  “I can hardly have her saying ‘fuck off’ to one of her classmates when he annoys her.”  She glared over at Jack.  “And guess where she heard that?”

Jack was opening his mouth to futilely defend himself when Daniel piped up with, “Her peers, undoubtedly, Janet.  I mean, she may have heard Jack say it, but frankly, what her peers say would probably have more effect, hence her use of the word ‘sphincter.’”  Janet was pursing her lips, still glaring over at Jack.  “Oh, come on, Janet, you can’t tell me her peers aren’t using that particular phrase, even if a little more discreetly than she is.”

“Maybe not, but because she doesn’t have that built in sense that some things shouldn’t be spoken aloud I have to be pretty straightforward with her about it.”

“If it would not be too inappropriate to ask, what does ‘asshole’ mean?” Nyan asked tentatively.

“It’s a derogatory name that derives from ass, which is a slang term for a person’s rear end,” Daniel said.  “Colloquially --”

Jack tuned Daniel out, though he could see that both Nyan and Teal’c were listening with rapt interest.  He’d have thought that Teal’c would know ‘asshole’ by now, though perhaps he didn’t know its derivation and colloquial use.  Instead of listening to his linguist wax eloquent about such things, he turned to Janet.  “I don’t know that you need to worry all that much, Fraiser.  She’ll be fine.”

“You’re not the one the principal calls when she’s told her teacher that he’s a sexist prick who doesn’t know how to grade without using his dick.”

Jack blinked.  “She actually said that?”

“The worst part about it is that it was true.  But I don’t know how to tell her that she can’t say a thing like that even if it is true.”

“What did you do?”

“I got her out of that class, for one, and the teacher’s been investigated for his grading practices.  I mean, Jack, it’s junior high.  Any teacher whose dick is involved in grading eighth graders doesn’t belong around eighth graders.”

Jack felt a slow burn begin in his gut.  “Um . . . what’s his name?” he asked.

“Never you mind,” Janet said, her eyes narrowing.  “And don’t you ask Cassie.”  Jack opened his mouth to reply, but she was ahead of him.  “Are you suggesting that I can’t handle this?”

“Of course not, Fraiser, but . . . aggressively?”

“Trust me, colonel.”

“I mean we’re talking about dark alley aggressive here.”

“I have a zat,” she said flatly.

Jack blinked again.  “Okay, I guess you do have it handled, then.”

“Thank you for that assessment, colonel,” she said dryly.

“You’re welcome, doctor,” he said, grinning.

“Beer for Jack,” Cassie said abruptly, plopping down a bottle in front of him.  “Root beer for Tony, Daniel, and Nyan.  Water for Teal’c.  Fuzzy Naval for Mom.”

Jack looked over at Carter, who was holding the tray and smiling.  She picked up the second Fuzzy Naval before Cassie could.  The girl took the last root beer looking mildly irritated.

“So, who wants to go swimming?” Janet asked.  She glanced over at Daniel.  “As your doctor, Daniel, I order you to swim.”  The archeologist raised an eyebrow.  “It will be good for you -- stretch your new skin.”

Jack saw Fraiser’s eyes go wide as she realized what she had said and in front of whom.  “New skin?” Cassie asked.

Daniel gave the doctor a _look_ and then he said, “I was burned, Cassie,” he said.

Cassie’s eyes flew wide with fury, and she opened her mouth.  Glancing at her mother, she made a visible choice of words and said, “I knew you had burns, but . . . it was deliberate?”

Daniel shrugged.  “Yes, Cassie, it was, but I’m all better now.”

She shook her head, her face crumpling.  “That’s . . . that’s just . . .”  She threw herself on Daniel, her shoulders shaking.  Daniel automatically put his arms around her, looking deeply alarmed.

“It’s okay, Cass, I’m okay,” he murmured to her.  Jack slipped out of his chair and gestured with his head toward the others to go back inside the house.  Daniel nodded his thanks as he continued to murmur reassurances to the girl.

“Well, I’ve got my swim trunks,” Jack said as he shut the kitchen door.  “And I know Daniel has his.”

“What are swim trunks?” Nyan asked perplexedly.

Carter reached down and grabbed a bag that was on the floor.  “Don’t worry, Nyan, I got you some,” she said, pulling out a pair of black boxer-style shorts.

He took them, brows knitting together as he looked at the garment.  “You wish me to put on these clothes for swimming in?” he asked.

“It’s a bathing suit, or swimsuit,” Sam said.  “That’s what it’s made for.  It doesn’t have anything to do with bathing, though.”

“I do not understand.  Why would you have garments made for swimming?”

There was a brief silence, broken tentatively by Tony.  “Do the people in your culture swim nude?”  Nyan nodded without speaking.

“Oh!” Jack said.  “Well, public nudity is not really ‘done’ here.”

“But, the showers on base are public.”

“Ah, well.”  Jack bit his lip.  “That’s different.  Um . . . certainly, mixed public nudity is against the rules, and there are only very limited circumstances when it’s allowed.  Like the showers on base, but even then, you’re not allowed to look at anybody.”

Nyan’s brows furrowed deeper.  “Why would you wish to?” he asked.

Teal’c walked forward and plucked his swimming attire out of the bag that Sam held.  “I will explain things to Nyan in more depth.  Would it be acceptable for us to change in the spare bedroom, Dr. Fraiser?”

“Of course, Teal’c.”

Jack went and grabbed his own suit and slipped into the downstairs powder room to change.  He wondered what Teal’c was telling Nyan.  He could easily see him telling him that the people on Earth had some pretty stupid ideas, but it was better to play along with them than try to fight them.  He snorted.  It wouldn’t be entirely false, but he figured that people on all planets had their stupid ideas.  It just differed from place to place.

He came out of the bathroom just in time to see Cassie disappearing up the stairs.  Daniel was standing in the middle of the kitchen looking mildly stunned.  “You okay, Daniel?”

Daniel nodded, seeming to come to himself again.  “I’m fine.  I didn’t really expect that from Cassie, though, I have to admit.”

“You just told her that somebody burned you on purpose to cause you pain and make you talk.  What did you expect?”

“I don’t know.  She kind of went on and on about how she couldn’t figure out why someone would want to hurt someone like me.”  Jack sighed, prepared for another question and answer session.  “I told her it wasn’t me so much as it was anyone who stood in his way, and she seemed to accept that, but Jack, what does she mean someone like me?”

Jack shrugged.  “She just means someone she cares about,” he said, evading the question as Harry had told him to.

“So she’d react the same way if it was you or --”

“Or Carter, or Teal’c.  Fraiser would be a little different because she’s Mom, but yeah, she’d react like this to any of the rest of us getting hurt like that.”

Daniel seemed relieved.  “Glad to hear that.  I’d better go change before Napoleon comes down and finds me unprepared for her prescribed treatment.”

“I guess you’d better hurry,” Fraiser said, making both of them jump.  She was standing in a dark green one-piece swimsuit in the doorway of the kitchen with a black skirty cover up thing over the top.  “Because Napoleon is downstairs and you’re not prepared.”

Daniel straightened sharply.  “Oui, mon general,” he said, snapping an odd-looking salute, palm facing outwards.  Then he took the bag from Jack that they’d brought their trunks here in and walked off into the powder room.

“What was that?” Jack asked, waving his hand in the general shape of Daniel’s gesture.

Fraiser smiled and walked the rest of the way into the room.  “A proper Napoleonic salute.”  Sam was behind her in a blue suit that made Jack’s eyes pop.  He never quite got used to the notion that Carter was so curvy.  It wasn’t that she didn’t look curvy in her fatigues, it was just that in her fatigues, he thought of her as a fellow soldier, not as a woman.  Soldiers were . . . well, they weren’t curvy.

They headed out to the pool, and within moments Cassie had joined them, splashing into the pool and demanding that they play pool volleyball.  As the others emerged, she started putting them on teams.

Tony came out with his pants rolled up to the knee and sat down on the edge of the pool right at the net.  “I can’t play,” he said, waving his hands.  “But I can score.”

The game was fast and furious, once Daniel and Teal’c had managed to get the rules across to Nyan.  Tony made good calls, though occasionally annoyingly accurate when they were against Jack.  Cassie had Carter, Nyan and Daniel on her team, leaving Jack with Teal’c and Fraiser.  Not that the two of them didn’t add up to three teammates, but Tony kept catching him in faults.  And calling him on them.

“Offsides, colonel,” he called.

“It was not!” Jack protested.

“I’m sorry, sir but it was,” Tony said, a grin twisting his lips.

“Indeed it was, O’Neill,” Teal’c said soberly.

Jack rounded on him.  “Traitor!”  Teal’c’s gaze darkened.  The Jaffa raised an eyebrow and Jack heard both Daniel and Sam make stifled sounds of objection.  “Um . . . strike that.  Not what I meant.”

Teal’c raised his chin and looked down his nose at Jack.  “Of course, O’Neill,” he said frostily.

In the end it came down to a very close point spread, but Tony announced Jack’s team the winners.  “Though truthfully, I’m not sure I shouldn’t disqualify Colonel O’Neill for his many faults.”

“If we were to punish Jack for all his faults, we’d never be done,” Daniel said.

Jack’s eyebrows went up.  “Oh, I _don’t_ think we want to get into a competition,” he said.

Daniel shrugged, climbing out of the pool and picking up a towel to dry off.  “I have no faults,” he said loftily.  “Everyone knows that.”

Jack dropped his jaw, staring at his friend, who was lying so blatantly, with not the slightest sign of shame.  “No faults?  You?”

Sam let out a high pitched giggle, and Daniel shot her an offended look.  She waved her hands helplessly, apparently incapable of speech.  Teal’c merely had both eyebrows raised, looking as surprised at the Jaffa ever did.  He tilted his head and said, “You are quite irritable until you have had your morning coffee.”  Daniel turned a betrayed look on Teal’c who seemed unperturbed.

“You mean until he’s had his third cup, right?” Carter contributed, having evidently regained control of her vocal cords.  Daniel turned his betrayed look on Carter who was nowhere near as immune to it as Teal’c was.

“No, Major Carter,” Teal’c said in his deep, resonant tones.  “I meant his first pot.”  Daniel made a little protesting sound in his throat and crossed his arms, looking supremely irritated.  Jack was enjoying this.  Usually they lambasted him.  It was a good sign that they were teasing Daniel now too.  “Further,” Teal’c went on, “you sometimes join O’Neill in inappropriate humor.”

Wait just a minute, now Teal’c was picking on him, too.  Jack was about to respond, but then he decided to wait and see what happened next.

“Yeah, Teal’c,” Carter said.  “I have noticed that.”

Jack raised an eyebrow, and glanced around at the others who were surrounding them.  Fraiser was trying against all odds to keep a straight face.  Nyan looked mildly concerned and very lost.  Tony looked absolutely stuffed.  And Cassie . . .

“Quit picking on him!” Cassie growled, climbing out to stand in front of Daniel, her hands on her hips, glaring at both Carter and Teal’c.  She looked both incredibly silly and incredibly intimidating, standing there, dripping.

Sam’s face went blank with surprise and Teal’c raised an eyebrow.  Daniel walked forward and put an arm around her shoulders.  “See, someone still likes me,” he said.

Cassie crossed her arms, striking a jaunty pose.  “Yeah,” she said.  “Come on, Uncle Daniel, I think there’s one more piece of pumpkin pie left.”

Jack’s eyes widened as they turned away.  “Oh, no you don’t!” he called, leaping out of the pool and running towards the house.  No way Daniel was getting the last piece of pumpkin pie.

As he raced for the house, he heard Fraiser call out behind him.  “You better be dry before you go inside!”

Daniel already had a towel, and he had a head start.  Jack turned back and grabbed a towel, drying off at he went.  He knew it was incredibly silly.  He knew they were behaving ludicrously.  But it was fun, and none of them had gotten any decent silly fun in a while.

Cassie had the advantage of knowing just what her mother’s tolerance levels were for relative dryness coming out of the pool.  She surged past both of them and emerged serenely just as both Jack and Daniel were nearly dry, carrying a plate upon which was a single wedge of orange pie and a fork.  This she handed to Daniel, who dug in with indecent pleasure, as if he’d somehow earned that slice of pie.

Which he probably had, to be fair, but then so had Jack.  Watching Daniel savor the pie was amusing as hell, as was watching Cassie watch him.

Fraiser walked up, laughing, and said, “I think it’s time to start dinner.  Did you mean what you said about watching the burgers, colonel?”

“Absolutely,” Jack said.

They all fell to getting things ready for dinner and Jack pulled on a shirt over his swim trunks and fired up the grill.  Daniel and Nyan sat down at the table once things were spread and Daniel said, “I don’t think we ever answered your question earlier, Nyan.”

“I’m sorry?”

“The question about whether we have these gatherings often.”

“Oh.”  The alien archeologist looked briefly thoughtful.  “No, you did not.”

“Well, the answer is, not as often as we ought to,” Daniel said.

“I agree,” Fraiser said.  “We should do this more often.”

Jack nodded and so did Sam.

“Indeed,” Teal’c replied, coming as close to smiling as he ever did.

“That’s just what I’ve been saying!” Cassie said, glowering at them all.  “Adults!”

Tony and Nyan both looked a little uneasy to be included in this mass of emotion, but Daniel grinned happily up at them both, uncomplicated pleasure beaming forth from his eyes, and they relaxed.


	44. Chapter 44

Daniel caught Janet just after everyone left and cornered her.  She raised an eyebrow at him.  “Can I help you, Dr. Jackson?”

“You gave me restrictions on my work habits for the first week I was back.  That was last week.  Are the restrictions lifted?”

She pursed her lips, giving him a very sour look.  “I suppose,” she said.

“I’ll be good, Janet, you know I will.”

Shaking her head, the doctor sighed.  “Actually, Daniel, I know you won’t, but there’s nothing I can do about it.  Just try to remember to eat.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said.  Then he gave her a hug.  Then he drew back and looked down at her.  “You know that problem I’m having, talking to you?”  She nodded, eyes growing wary.  “I think it will pass, it’ll just take some time.  That’s just a really sensitive spot for me, and always has been.”

She smiled up at him.  “Thank you,” she said.  “Now run along and get some sleep.  If I know you, you won’t be leaving the mountain before nine tomorrow.”

“Daniel!  We’re leaving!”

“I think you’re reckoning without Jack,” he said, turning to go.

“Maybe Colonel O’Neill and I should have a chat,” Janet said.

He gave her a mock-glare and then followed Jack out to his truck.  Once they were on the move, he leaned against the window, looking at Jack’s profile.  “So, what were you and Sam talking about so privately?” he asked.

Jack shrugged.  “Private stuff.”

Daniel had caught sight of Sam’s face when she’d glanced back at him over her shoulder, and he had his suspicions.  But when Jack clammed up . . . it was time to fetch a crowbar.  “Private?” he asked.  “Private how?  I mean, do you two have something planned?”

“No,” Jack said, sounding incredulous.  “Like what?”

“I don’t know, Jack, that’s why I asked.”

“No, Daniel, it was just personal.”

“Is something wrong with either of you?” Daniel asked.  “Is there something going on that I should know about?”

“Damn it, Daniel,” Jack groaned.  “Why can’t you just leave it be?”

“Because I think you were talking about me, Jack, and with everyone else on base already talking about me behind my back, I don’t need you two doing it, too.”

“We actually weren’t talking about you, Daniel,” Jack growled, and to Daniel’s surprise he actually sounded sincere.  Jack cleared his throat.  “We were talking about people talking about you.”

“Oh.”  Daniel flushed, glad Jack couldn’t see his reaction in the dark.  “There’s not much point in talking about it, is there?  It’s not like there’s anything anyone can do.  Something else interesting will happen, and people will forget about this.”  At about the same time pigs took flight, Daniel reflected disconsolately.  What was so damned interesting about this anyway?

“On another note,” Jack said, “I asked her about the incident with Sciaparelli, and it sounds as if the guy wasn’t so much shooting his mouth off about you as he was hazing the new guy, using your experience as fuel.”

Daniel raised his eyebrows.  “Really?” he said.

“From the description,” Jack replied.

“So it was nothing personal towards me?” Daniel asked.

Jack shrugged.  “Nope,” he said.

Daniel heaved a sigh.  “Just a carryover, then, of the adolescent tradition of hazing, hmm?”

“Unfortunately,” Jack replied, “but pretty mild as it goes.  It can get pretty rough sometimes.”

“I know, believe me,” Daniel said with a little more emotional emphasis than he had intended.  Jack raised an eyebrow.  “You try being a poorly socialized sixteen-year-old geek with glasses in the freshman dorms.  It’s a whole world of no fun.”

Jack was silent for several seconds.  “I can imagine.”

Daniel cleared his throat preparatory to changing the subject.  “So, Janet has cleared me from restricted duty.  Still no offworld, but I can back to my usual schedule.”

“Since you’re staying with me still, that equates to my usual schedule,” Jack said.  “And barring emergencies, I’m never out of there later than seven o’clock.”

Daniel thought about suggesting that he take his own car, but decided against it.  Suggesting that he go home was also out.  Hammond had made it clear that he wanted Jack to continue monitoring Daniel’s sleeping habits for the time being since he still had frequent nightmares that woke them both up.

Like those were going to stop anytime soon, Daniel thought in frustration.  He still had nightmares over sending Apophis -- or rather Apophis’ host -- through the gate to be tortured by Sokar.

It was probably better if General Hammond didn’t know about things like that.  He was so concerned about these nightmares that he’d probably worry even more about Daniel’s stability if he knew that he had nightmares about the fate of Apophis.

They got back to Jack’s house and Daniel walked inside, feeling both at home and very much away from home.  He was comfortable at Jack’s, but if he thought of a book he wanted, he couldn’t just go grab it.  He had to make a mental note to pick it up on his next swing by his apartment to feed the fish.  Even so, he could hardly move his whole library into Jack’s spare bedroom.  Apart from the fact that it was rude to invade like that, quite frankly, there wasn’t space.

A hand on his shoulder brought him to himself, and he wondered how long he’d been woolgathering.  Jack squeezed.  “I know this isn’t the ideal situation, but you can hardly blame Hammond for wanting to be sure you don’t have screaming nightmares nightly before you’re back on mission status.”  Daniel shrugged.

* * *

Jack watched Daniel shrug from behind and, concerned, walked around to see what his expression looked like.  When Daniel ducked his head to hide his face, Jack got worried.  “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” Daniel said, and he started to go past him into the living room.  “You want to --”

“I want to know what’s up,” Jack said, crossing his arms.  Sighing, Daniel stopped moving when he was level with Jack’s shoulder.  They stood side by site, each facing the opposite direction for a moment, then Jack turned.  Daniel’s profile was tense.  “What is it?” Jack asked insistently.  The archeologist folded his arms across his chest, but almost immediately shifted into the self-hugging posture that always meant something was bugging him.  “Daniel, seriously.”

“Seriously?”  Daniel turned his head and met Jack’s eyes  “Jack, I have nightmares all the time.”  Shrugging again, he continued into the living room.

Jack followed.  “The waking up screaming kind?”

Daniel sank down into one of the deep chairs.  “Oh yeah,” he said on a sigh.

“But, you’ve never said anything,” Jack said.  “And you don’t have them on missions.”

“And on missions you wake up at a pin drop.”  Daniel snorted.  “Present circumstances aside, when you’re home, you’re a grouchy bear if someone wakes you.”

Jack sat down on the edge of the couch.  “So you’re saying that you sleep differently on missions.”

“Just like you do,” Daniel said.  “I still have nightmares, but they don’t come quite as severely.”

Shaking his head, Jack tried to absorb this information.  “You don’t have those kinds of dreams every night, do you?”

“No, not every night.  But often enough.  They usually come in the early mornings.”  Daniel shook his head and leaned forward.  “It’s not a big deal, Jack.  I’ve had them for years, even before joining the program.  They’ve gotten a little more frequent, and they tend to be more frequent right after a hard mission, but they ease up over time.”

Jack nodded slowly.  He supposed that a man who had the misfortune to watch his parents get crushed to death by an enormous stone artifact when he was eight probably had a right to have nightmares.  Daniel had mentioned nightmares earlier, but Jack would never have guessed that they were nearly as frequent -- or as severe -- as Daniel was now implying.

“What do you dream about?”

Daniel grimaced.  “What do you think, Jack?  My parents, Sha’re, Hadante, Hathor, you name it.”

“I just -- I never --”

“Don’t you have nightmares, Jack?” Daniel demanded, sounding almost aggressive.

“Of course I do, but --”  Jack shook his head.  “I just didn’t know you had them so often.”

“How often is often?” Daniel asked.  “Once or twice a week is usual for me.”

“The waking up screaming kind?” Jack asked.  Daniel nodded, looking disgruntled.  “I think that is a little more often than normal,” Jack said tentatively.

Daniel shrugged a third time.  “Oh.”

Jack didn’t know what to say.  So far his nightmares had never interfered with Daniel’s work.  Did it merit mentioning to Harry?  It was an alarming thought, but Jack didn’t know enough about emotional trauma to know if what Daniel was describing was normal given his background.  He knew he didn’t often have the kind of nightmares Daniel had, and in fact hadn’t had one for years.  His own experience with rape had left him with troubled sleep for a long time, but that was fifteen years back.

Right now Daniel was sleeping through one night in three.  Even if nightmares didn’t trouble him the same way on missions, there was no way Hammond was okaying him before he more than reversed that.  Not that there weren’t plentiful tasks to be accomplished, and not that they didn’t often spend weeks between offworld missions, but Jack knew Daniel was getting frustrated and feeling like he was holding the rest of them back.

“It’s just dumb!” Daniel burst out.  “I’m fine.  I’m no worse off now than I have been at half a dozen points in the past.  I mean, do you really think I didn’t have insane nightmares after we watched Sha’re go off with Apophis after her child was born?  Or after the Keeper grabbed us all on P7J-989?  No one suggested I should be restricted from duty then.”

“No one knew you were having nightmares, Daniel!” Jack exclaimed.  “You didn’t mention that little fact, and you have a singular habit of not telling anyone when things bug you.”

“Oh, should I be more like you?” Daniel demanded.  “Wait, how would I do that?  I would keep my mouth shut when things bother me, stuff it down in a little box inside.”

Jack growled.  “We’re not talking about me!”

“Why aren’t we?” Daniel asked, leaning so far forward he was in danger of falling out of the chair.  “You didn’t exactly come out of this unscathed.  Damnit, Jack, you almost died and it would have been my fault if you had!”

“There is no way in hell it could have been your fault, Daniel!” Jack replied.

“Right, because there was nothing I could do to stop him!” Daniel snapped.

“Right!”  Jack shook his head and went on in a more moderate tone.  “There wasn’t, Daniel.  Nothing you could do.  You couldn’t answer the question he asked, and you couldn’t physically stop him.”

“Then why the hell do you feel guilty, Jack?”

Jack’s jaw dropped.  “What?”

“You weren’t even in the same tent.  You were locked into a cage that shocked you if you touched the bars.  You couldn’t have helped me, so there’s no good reason for you to feel guilty.”

Jack stared at his friend whose eyes were boring into him.  He hadn’t expected Daniel to go on the offensive, though now that he thought about it, he should have.  It was one of Daniel’s primary defense mechanisms.  Shift the focus of the conversation.  “It’s not going to work, Daniel,” he said.

Daniel blinked at him.  “What are you talking about?” he asked, sounding genuinely baffled.

“This isn’t about me.  I’m talking to Harry about my problems.”  Daniel’s eyes went round.  “Don’t keep trying to shift things.  Right now we’re talking about you.”

Daniel sat silently across the room from him, staring blankly, words apparently stilled for once.  An uncomfortable hush fell over the room.  Jack decided to wait him out.  Silence was harder to bear than words were.

The seconds went by, ticking slowly on the clock in the corner, then Daniel suddenly stood up sharply and strode from the room.  Taken by surprise, Jack sat stupidly, watching him, then listening as he went up the steps and into the spare room.  The door shut with a finality that made Jack bite his lip.  He didn’t know what to make of this reaction, and he wasn’t sure how to respond to it.

Did Daniel need time alone?  Or was this a moment when Jack should follow him and make sure he was okay?  Jack just wasn’t sure, and he didn’t want to make the wrong move.

After a few moments, he got up and went to Daniel’s door.  Knocking lightly, he said, “Daniel?”  There was no answer, and Jack opened the door, peering in.  Daniel was sitting on the bed, knees drawn up to his chest, eyes staring straight ahead.  “Daniel?”

“Are you really seeing a psychiatrist?” Daniel asked.

“Sort of.  I did talk to her a little about how I feel,” Jack said.  “But frankly, Daniel, I have a lot of things to feel guilty for.  I made my decisions too slowly.  The minute I heard there was a war, I should have had Carter start setting up the reactor.  In fact, I should have had her set the damned thing up as soon as we got there.  We’ve had --”  Daniel was shaking his head, opening his mouth to protest.  “No, Daniel, I’m not being too hard on myself,” he said, and Daniel gave him a dirty look that made it abundantly clear that he’d been about to say just that.  “I’m in charge of tactical decisions, and I made a poor one in this case.  I don’t know that it would have changed anything.  It might have taken too long to set up, and there are half a dozen other things that might have gone wrong, but I still should have done it.”

“Jack, everyone makes mistakes.”

“True, but you didn’t make any, and that’s my point.  You did everything in your brief, and you did it to the best of your ability.”

“I didn’t get through to him.”  There was a desolate look on Daniel’s face as he spoke, and Jack realized abruptly that he was kicking himself for not being able to get through to the wretched jackass who hurt him.

Controlling another surge of rage at a man who was dead and beyond reach, Jack took a deep breath.  “Daniel, Rigar was a hopeless case.  There was no way you could have gotten through to him.  Even if you’d persuaded him of the truth, he still would have done what he did.”

“You can’t know that, Jack,” Daniel said quietly.

“Fine, so I can’t know it for fact, but it can be presumed,” Jack replied.  “We might have had a slim chance if the woman had been in charge, but even that’s not certain.”  He shook his head.  “Daniel, listen to me, don’t beat yourself up because you couldn’t get through to a religious fanatic.”

“Maybe there was a different way to address it,” Daniel said.  “Maybe if I’d tried a little harder to explain about Nefertum’s connection with Ra, and who Ra was, given him details about --”

“It just would have given him more reasons to hurt you,” Jack said gently, sitting down on the bed with him.  “You have a gift, Daniel, an amazing gift for getting through to people.  But there are going to be people who won’t hear you no matter what you say.”

“Oddly enough, that doesn’t make me feel better,” Daniel said.

“I don’t know that it should, Daniel,” Jack said, sighing.  “It’s just a fact of life, there are always those who can’t be reasoned with.”

Daniel shrugged, and Jack could tell that he wasn’t getting through, but he didn’t know what he could say to make it past Daniel’s conviction.

Unexpectedly, Daniel spoke.  “You keep saying that you have reason to feel guilty, that you made mistakes that’s it’s your job to avoid.”  Jack nodded, not sure where Daniel was headed with this.  “Don’t you think that maybe -- just maybe -- this is the same thing for me?”

Jack moistened his lips and considered the point.  His immediate instinct was to say no, but was that the right answer?  On his last visit to Harry, on Friday, she had warned him against trying to make Daniel feel better without regard for the truth.  No reassurances that couldn’t be backed up, Daniel was too smart for that, and such falsehoods would damage Jack’s credibility.

Daniel was waiting and starting to look as if he felt vindicated by the lengthy pause.

Jack cleared his throat.  “Okay, let’s look at that.”  Daniel tilted his head.  “It takes five minutes or thereabouts to set up the reactor, right?”

“Roughly,” Daniel agreed.

“And if Carter had already been working on it when the shuttles showed up, we would have had a better chance of getting out of there.  The gate was within the cordoned off area.”

“And if we’d done that,” Daniel riposted, “where would Teal’c be now?  Rigar would have been able to focus all his efforts on the search, would have had to, really, in case there were people lurking.”

Jack stared at him, startled by the analysis.  “It’s a problem, but it’s not the point.  I made a poor decision that might have affected the outcome of events.”

“And you’re saying that I didn’t.”  It wasn’t a question, but it demanded an answer.

“I’m saying that even if you had convinced Rigar that we were visitors from another planet, he would have killed us, hunted Teal’c down and killed him, probably killed Nyan too, for good measure, he would have destroyed the gate then covered everything up under the tightest military secrecy he could muster.”

Daniel paled at this recitation, but Jack didn’t even try to soften it.  After a second, Daniel said, “And Mallin.”

“Mallin?” Jack asked, momentarily unsure who Daniel was referring to.  “Oh, right, the woman.  Yeah, her too, probably.  All in all it’s probably a good thing you didn’t convince the bastard that the gate was real, or he might have destroyed it first thing to avoid further contamination.”

Daniel went utterly white and Jack’s mouth dried up at the thought.  Great, now both of them would have nightmares tonight.  If they’d been removed from the vicinity of the gate, General Hammond could have sent teams in to retrieve them.  But if the gate had been disabled, it would have taken the Tok’ra and a long time to get them back, if it could have been managed at all.

“And I thought my imagination was scary,” Daniel said with a forced laugh.  “I believe you had a point in there somewhere, Jack.  Could you remind me what it was?”

Jack nodded, swallowing convulsively.  “Yeah.  Um . . . I just think you did the best you could.  This second guessing can be taken too far.”

“As I think you just proved,” Daniel said fervently.  “You got any more fun movies?  Because I’m not trying to sleep with _that_ buzzing around in my head.”

Jack nodded again.  By mutual consent they headed downstairs and watched another kids’ movie.  They stayed up till nearly one a.m., trying to purge that hideous thought, and then went up to bed.

Daniel woke them both at about four a.m., but Jack got him back to sleep with a glass of milk and a backrub.

“The milk should be warm, Jack, shouldn’t it?” Daniel complained, looking askance at the condensation on the glass Jack presented him.

“Actually, according to Harry, when you heat milk it creates stimulants, not sedatives.  It’s cold milk that aids sleep.”

Daniel drank the milk down dubiously and lay down on his stomach.  As he began the massage, Jack was surprised by the well developed muscles in the other man’s back, but quickly focused on the knots he was trying to relax.  When Daniel was snoring softly, he made his way back to his own bed.

Just after five-thirty, he woke on a gasp from a terrifying dream.  Most of it was swirling away even as he sat up, but there were bits and snatches still floating in his head as he switched off the alarm, set for six, and went to shower.  He banished them resolutely with thoughts of the day to come and washed off the cold sweat that covered his body.

When he came out, he found Daniel already downstairs fixing sausage and eggs.  The other man had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was all spiky from sweat and sleep.

“Sorry,” Jack said.  He wasn’t entirely sure what he was apologizing for.  Whether for taking the first shower, or failing to cook breakfast, or for the wretched thing he’d said the night before, he had no idea.

Daniel just shook his head.  “Don’t be,” he said.

They ate in silence, then Jack went upstairs and pulled the sheets of his bed and remade it.  Then, for good measure, he stripped and remade Daniel’s bed, too.  The other man had wrecked the bedding on his bed with tossing and turning.  The bottom sheet was shoved all the way down to the foot of the bed, and the blankets were pulled out completely.

Jack turned with the bundle of rumpled linens to find Daniel standing in the doorway in a bathrobe.  “I was going to do that,” he said.

“Well, now you don’t have to,” he said simply.  Daniel gave him a weak smile as they passed in the doorway.

They met again downstairs at seven and headed out the door.  Daniel pulled out a book, made a face, then said, “How long am I staying with you for?”

“Till you stop having quite so many nightmares, I guess,” Jack said, shrugging.  “How come?”

Daniel sighed and leaned back against the seat, thumping his head against the headrest.  “You mind if I clear the knick-knacks off a couple of the shelves in that room and bring some books over?”

“Sure, of course, Daniel.  Anything you want.”

“So I guess I’ll head over there tonight after work.”

“We can stop by on the way home if you want.”

“Sounds good, if you’re willing to hang out at my place for a while.  I could just drive over after we get home.”

“Nah, we’ll just go by on the way home.  I can wait, or maybe even help out.”

Daniel nodded and closed his eyes.  Jack wished he had the option of napping on the way into work.  The night had not been restful, and it was his own damned fault.  He and Daniel parted at the elevators, Daniel getting off before he did.  Jack went to his office and contemplated the space.  One of these days he’d have to do something to make it more . . . more him.

He settled down and pulled up the daily personnel schedules, and looked at the unpleasantness contained in his e-mail.  Meetings, more seminars with the newbies, a few disciplinary problems that had been assigned him -- oh joy -- and an invitation to a party next weekend.

Jack sent a message requesting the presence of those he had to speak firmly to -- how he hated having to ride herd over a bunch of misbehaving adults -- not forgetting Lt. Alexander Marquez.

The man had duty all morning, so Jack sent an order for him to report at one p.m. to his commanding officer, explaining only that it was regarding disciplinary issues.


	45. Chapter 45

Tony was already there, hard at work reading more mission reports.  Daniel pulled out his handwritten mission report and smiled over at his new assistant.  “When you’re at a breaking point, I need this typed, if your hands are up to it.”

The lieutenant glanced down at the report he was reading, marked his spot and stood up.  “I can do it now, sir,” he said.

“Daniel.”  Shaking his head, Daniel showed Tony where the templates were and got him started.  Tony settled down to start working on the report, and Daniel went over to take up where he’d left off on Friday when Jack had interrupted him.

He was deeply involved in sorting out a mess of verbs masquerading as nouns when he heard an angry voice behind him.  He turned to find Tony attempting unsuccessfully to fend off an irritated Major Grady.

“Sir, Dr. Jackson is busy,” he was saying.

“I need to talk to him, lieutenant,” Grady said, placing heavy emphasis on the other man’s rank.

“Dr. Jackson is --”

“Already distracted,” Daniel said, turning and crossing his arms.  “Major, can I help you?”

“I was expecting those translations this morning, but I didn’t find them on my desk, and Tolliver says he hasn’t seen them.”

Daniel blinked at him.  “I got a little ahead of schedule last week and sent them over to Colonel Miller on Friday.  I think he’d already headed home, though.  It was around five.”

Grady looked as if he felt flat-footed for all of two seconds, then his embarrassment turned back to anger.  “I brought them to you, I expected you would send them back to me.”

“I see,” Daniel said.  “When I spoke to Colonel Miller about them, he requested that I get them to him when I was done with them.”

Grady drew up straight and said, “Of course.”

“Is there anything else I can help you with?” Daniel asked.

“No, thank you, Dr. Jackson.”

“Um . . .”  As Major Grady turned away, Daniel caught his attention.  “Have you been introduced to the new head of the archeology department’s administrative staff yet?”

“No, I haven’t,” Grady said, pausing and looking over at Tony.  “He said he was your assistant.”

“He’s that as well,” Daniel said blandly, smiling.  He wasn’t about to have people start treating Tony disrespectfully.  Not a good precedent.  “This is Lt. Sciaparelli.”

Grady nodded politely and they shook hands.  Then Grady beat a hasty retreat.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t keep him from disturbing you, Daniel,” Tony said once Grady was out of earshot.

“Don’t worry about it, Tony,” Daniel replied.  “What time is it?  Nearly ten?”

“You might want to take a break in any case,” Tony suggested.

“I think I just had one,” Daniel said.

“Sir, that doesn’t count as a break.”

“I’m . . .”  Daniel blinked and gave Tony an amused look.  “I’m not going to respond to your comments if you don’t start calling me Daniel,” he said with a grin.  “How’s that?”

Tony started to make an ‘s’ sound, then stopped and said, “Daniel, I don’t believe that counted as a break.  It was more of a confrontation.  What was that all about anyway?”

Daniel shrugged.  “Grady dropped some stuff off in here a week ago last Thursday, but I was asleep at the time and so I didn’t talk to him.  I didn’t even know he’d brought it, since the paperwork didn’t say anything about him.  I just contacted Miller, because it was his team’s mission, and got things worked out with him.  Then Grady showed up on that Friday and wanted to know when I’d be done.  Miller and I had worked out that today would be fine since he didn’t really need it till tomorrow.  I guess Grady thought he was in charge of the process somehow, despite the fact that he couldn’t be bothered to fill out the paperwork properly.”  Daniel shook his head, trying to dismiss the irritation that had suffused him.  “It doesn’t matter, the work is done, the right man has it and that’s all that counts.”

* * *

Tony persuaded Dr. Jackson -- Daniel -- to take ten minutes to walk down and get himself some fresh pastries.  He was tempted to accompany him, to fend off people like Grady, but that seemed a little presumptuous.  Instead he settled back down at the computer to finish typing Daniel’s report.  It was heavy on the cultural analysis, with description of the events that took place seeming to take second string, which wasn’t entirely usual when compared with the reports he’d been reading.  Not that it wasn’t clear and straightforward, but, so far at any rate, Daniel seemed to be trying to distance himself from what happened to him.

Taking a moment to stretch, he contemplated Dr. -- Daniel’s assertion that Grady’s disrespectful behavior didn’t matter so long as the task was complete.  He appreciated the lack of rancor, the lack of spitefulness, but there was a difference between that and disregarding inappropriate behavior.  He began to see more of what Colonel O’Neill meant when he said Daniel needed a keeper.

Dr. Jackson returned with a plate of donuts.  “I couldn’t get them to let me take just a couple,” he said, laughing at Tony’s raised eyebrows.  “They pamper me outrageously.  If this keeps up, Jack’s going to accuse me of graft.”

Tony laughed and they got back to work.  It was soon after that Tony came to the first real indication of the torture SG-1 had suffered during the mission to P2X-416.  They were captured, blood was drawn both to verify if they were human and as an attempt to identify them.  Evidently DNA markers were registered on Bedrosia.  It undoubtedly made tracking criminals easier, and identifying dead bodies considerably easier, but it gave Tony the willies.  Too much random information was stored in the strands of DNA.

But once this Commander Rigar started questioning them and it became abundantly clear that they were caught in a religious mess of phenomenal proportions, Tony began to worry.  Then abruptly, after a description of a solitary interrogation followed by a long time where the three captured members of SG-1 were left alone together in separate cages, the report took a sideways leap into religious analysis.  Reams of it.  Well, not reams, but six long paragraphs discussing, in part, things Daniel hadn’t even mentioned Rigar as having said yet.  From a man whose reports seemed always to be concise and well organized, if a bit on the over-educated side, this report was a jumbled mess.  Tony wondered, given that the man generally typed things up himself, if the reorganization would have come then.  As it was, Tony was going to have to suggest that Daniel re-read it to do some rewriting.

His thoughts stopped abruptly, as did his fingers.  He read through the description of Daniel’s second solitary interrogation in horrified silence.  This man, this kind and supremely gentle man . . .  Tony knew torture happened, and he’d even known men it had happened to.  But no one had ever gone into details, and . . . well, it was clear that Dr. Jackson was special, not just from the reports he’d read that had been written by his teammates, or the occasional analysis that was appended to the reports, but from the way people here treated him.

“You okay?” Daniel asked, and Tony jumped.  The archeologist was still sitting on his stool, but he was fully turned and gazing at him.

“I’m sorry, sir!” he exclaimed, realizing that he’d just been caught reading the report he was supposed to be transcribing.  “I --”

“There’s nothing for you to apologize for, Tony,” Daniel said, giving him a sympathetic look.  Him, for pity’s sake!  “It’s not a pleasant tale.  If it’s too much, I can finish typing it myself.”

“No, sir,” Tony said.  “I mean, no, Daniel.  I can finish it.  I just -- I got so --”

“That’s not usual,” Daniel said, indicating the report.  “But some pretty wretched stuff happens out there from time to time. If it’s more than you can handle, that’s okay.”

Tony shook his head.  “I can handle it, Daniel.  I just had to . . . I don’t know . . . absorb that before I could finish the transcription.”  Daniel shrugged, looking embarrassed, and Tony realized that too much sympathy or concern would not be well received, not because Daniel wouldn’t appreciate them but because he wouldn’t know what to do with them.  “How’s your translation coming?”

“Well, it appears that being interrupted jogged a few things loose in my head,” Daniel replied with some evidence of relief.  “I’ve got my verbs and nouns straightened out, which is the first step to finishing this damned thing.”

“Don’t let me --” Tony started, but he was interrupted.

“Now is the time for archeologists and their staffs to take some time to eat, drink and be merry,” Colonel O’Neill announced from the door.

Tony glanced at the clock and saw that it was quarter past twelve.  “Of course,” he said, saving the file and closing it.  He stood up and placed a piece of paper over the top of Daniel’s written report.  “Let’s go.”

Daniel looked back and forth between them and said, “Yeah guys, you go on ahead.  I’ve got work to do, and no plans to stop before one.”  He turned his back on them, bending over his desk.

Tony raised his eyebrows and turned to see what Colonel O’Neill would do.  The older man shrugged.  “Okay, Daniel,” he said, turning toward the door.

Daniel raised his head.  “‘Okay, Daniel’?” he repeated incredulously.

O’Neill shrugged again.  “Yeah, I’ll just tell Teal’c you can’t join us.”

The archeologist turned.  “Teal’c?” he asked

“Yeah.  Big guy, gold tattoo, snake in his belly, you remember,” O’Neill replied, gesturing suitably.

“Thanks, Jack,” Daniel said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  “I know who Teal’c is.  Are you saying that he’s waiting for me?”

“Yes,” O’Neill said in a voice that suggested he was editing the truth a bit.  “More like ‘us’ than ‘you’ but, in general . . . yes, he’s waiting.”

Tony watched with fascination as this utterly transparent ploy by O’Neill worked to perfection.  Dr. Jackson muttered a bit, but he walked with them to the commissary.

As they made their way through the halls, however, Tony began to realize that the two of them were playing a game.  Daniel had been bluffing, and O’Neill had called his bluff.  It was as simple as that.  When they arrived, Teal’c was, indeed, sitting alone at a table.  They got their food and Daniel went to sit down right across from the . . . Jaffa, that was the name of his . . . species?  Tony shook his head and watched while the archeologist then proceeded to ignore Colonel O’Neill as if he weren’t present.

It was probably disrespectful even to think this, but they reminded him of his two younger brothers, they way they bickered and made fun of each other.  It was obvious from the way O’Neill kept an eye on Daniel, the way he teased him and bullied him into eating, that he thought of him as a younger brother who was very much in need of taking care of.

Tony wasn’t altogether certain he agreed that Dr. Jackson needed quite as much babying as O’Neill seemed to think he did, but he’d known the man for less than a week whereas O’Neill had known him for nearly four years.

Some of his early reports had shown him to be somewhat impatient with his civilian consultant.  Tony found himself wondering how long it had taken them to find this easy camaraderie.  They were such different men with very different interests, but their friendship was easy to see.

* * *

When Jack got back to his office, he found Marquez waiting outside.  It was still five till one, so he gave the man a bare acknowledging salute and went inside, leaving the lieutenant waiting.  He pulled up his e-mail and blinked at the brilliantly red subject line that stood out from all the others.  An e-mail from General Hammond . . .  He opened it and read it through and started cursing aloud.

After a moment, he said, “Marquez, get your butt in here.”  Lt. Marquez came in quickly and saluted again.  Jack sort of waved back and said, “Shut the door.”  The man followed his instructions and then stood there, looking petrified.  “I don’t have time for this kind of crap, Marquez.  We’re going to make this short and sweet, and then you’re going to get the hell out of my office.”

“Yes, sir,” Marquez said, gulping.

“Some mild hazing is a common practice in most military institutions, and as it goes, what you pulled on Sciaparelli is pretty damned minor.  Not particularly acceptable, but minor.  My real concern is the content of what you said.”

Marquez’s eyes were so wide, they were practically popping out of his head.

“Now, we are all aware that gossip is going to happen in a closed group of people like this one, most of whom work together closely.  However, there are types of gossip that are unacceptable.  This rampant speculation about what happened to Dr. Jackson is one of them.  Where did you get this preposterous story that Dr. Jackson was gang-raped?”

Marquez flinched at the blunt way he put it and blinked.  “It’s the story that I heard, sir, from a couple of people.”

“I see.  Have you heard any other ‘stories’?”

The lieutenant swallowed convulsively.  “Yes, sir.”

“Do tell,” Jack said, leaning back in his chair.  “I’d like to know what people are saying about Daniel.”

“Sir, I --”  Marquez seemed to fight an internal struggle then sighed.  “There are some guys, on SG-13, who seem to think that Dr. Jackson must have been . . . well, they think he’s . . .”

“I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘gay,’” Jack said.  “Please don’t mince words.  Show the uniforms we both wear a little respect by being candid.”

Marquez nodded.  “There are three guys on SG-13, and another guy on my team, we all go out bar-hopping together when we’ve got time.  Some of them think Dr. Jackson is gay, and that he must have been asking for what he got.”

Icy rage settled over Jack like a mantle, and he didn’t fucking well have time to deal with this nonsense.  “I see,” he said simply.

Marquez was beginning to look panicked.  “I told them that was stupid.  For one thing, I never thought Dr. Jackson was gay.  Just cuz he used to have long hair and he’s kind of soft-hearted doesn’t mean he’s gay.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed.  “Generous of you to recognize that.  Go on.”

“On, sir?”

“What exactly do they say, and which of our officers are spreading this dreck?”

In stumbling words, Marquez told him who and then recited the substance of the story, which featured Daniel behaving in ways that were appalling and outrageous, flirting with Rigar to get better treatment and then crying rape after the rescue.

Jack gazed silently at Marquez after he was done, long enough for him to squirm.  “But you claim you don’t believe this.”

“No, sir, and I told them I thought they were wrong.  Dr. Jackson might be a civilian, and -- like I said -- soft-hearted, but he’s not treacherous like that.”

Jack blinked at Marquez for a long moment, then said, “You and I need to have a long talk, but not now.  I don’t have time now.”  The marine lieutenant looked utterly petrified.  “Just you remember, though, we are going to have a long talk about some attitudes you have that need to be rectified.”

“But sir, I said I didn’t believe --”

“I know.  And that’s why you aren’t packing up your things and heading to a less sensitive command.  You have shown yourself to be slightly more than adequate SGC material, so you are getting another chance.  Your friends, however, will not.  I would avoid them henceforward, however, lest the taint rub off.”  Marquez stood silently sweating for a few moments.  Jack looked at his computer, wrestled with the search program briefly, then said, “I’m giving you an assignment, Marquez.”  He scribbled down a note.  “Take this to the records clerk and read the reports he gives you, cover to cover, as if you were prepping for a test.  I want you to be prepared to discuss them with me when we talk again.”

“Yes sir,” Marquez said.

“Dismissed.”

He didn’t look up as the lieutenant left, instead he put a call through to Hammond.  Within a quarter hour he was arranging orders.  SG-13 was one of the larger teams, made up of seven men led by Colonel Emmons.  His second was Major Travis.  They had five lieutenants with varying scientific specialties, and they tended to go on longer missions to worlds that teams like SG-1 had done initial reconnaissance on, to do more intensive scientific surveys when it was deemed appropriate.

Jack wasn’t thrilled with Major Travis, Lt. Sinclair and Lt. Hyde.  Nor Lt. Krup, who was on SG-5 with Marquez.  He’d immediately sent for their files, and they all had reasonably good records.  They’d have to in order to make it into the SGC, but it was a damned shame that they had to be idiots.  It was hard enough to find qualified officers with the requisite classification levels, he didn’t need people who’d otherwise proven themselves turning out to have these kinds of attitudes.

Hammond had agreed, however, that anyone who would make such unfounded allegations about another member of the SGC didn’t need to be part of the organization.  It would be bad enough if they’d had anything whatsoever to go on, but this was pure invention, pure malicious invention, designed to destroy a man who’d already sacrificed more of himself than they could possibly comprehend.

He’d done a few discreet checks, and turned up the information that Marquez had been spending less off duty time, both on and off base, with the men he’d named.  He’d also turned up other persuasive corroborating information that implicated all four of them.

The three lieutenants he was sending to the godawfullest, most wretched bases imaginable, three separate bases to guarantee that they couldn’t get up to more trouble, at least not with each other.  Major Travis, however, was going to have to retire.  With a censure this grievous -- and it would be grievous -- on their records, the lieutenants were going to have the devil’s own time advancing.  Travis, however, was done.  He had been encouraging inappropriate conversation among his subordinates, engaging in it himself in their presence, and being an outright jackass in a fairly broad manner.  At his rank and age, he should damned well know better and be able to show a little more restraint.

Fortunately, that wasn’t Jack’s job.  Hammond could handle that with freezing dignity and aplomb, thus leaving Jack out of it entirely.  He just got a pair of MPs and sent for each of the lieutenants in turn, explaining that they were to clean out their lockers and leave the base quietly in the company of the MPs, not communicating with anyone, and they would receive their orders in due course.  And they were to remember that this project was classified and that they were not to discuss matters relating to it with anyone.  Only Krup asked why he was being sent packing, and Jack just raised an eyebrow.  The lieutenant shut up and saluted, leaving Jack’s office with smart military precision.  They could appeal the decision, any of them, but they would be gone and that was what mattered to Jack at the moment.

The minute the last of them was dealt with, Jack carefully crafted an e-mail to be sent to everyone on base.  He was tired of this, and he didn’t want to deal with any more crap than he already had.


	46. Chapter 46

Daniel heard Tony let out a low whistle and he came up for air.  “What is it?” he asked, turning around.

“Um . . .”  Tony turned and his eyes were wide.  “Base-wide e-mail from Colonel O’Neill, s -- Daniel.”  Daniel walked up and looked over Tony’s shoulder at his computer’s screen.

  

> To All Personnel:
> 
>  It has come to my attention that a certain recent event concerning SG-1’s mission to P2X-416 has become fodder for base gossip and innuendo.  This will stop immediately.  If anyone has questions regarding the events that took place on P2X-416, they may direct them to myself or to General Hammond.
> 
> Gossip can be an ugly game with ugly consequences.  Please give some thought to what you say about your co-workers before you say it, and consider the possible effects the stories you spread may have on the subjects and on your future career.
> 
> If incidents of this sort happen again, no matter what the topic or the person under discussion, there will be no warnings given.  Censure will be immediate and severe.
> 
> To those of you who already had the good sense and decency to rise above the gossip mongering that has been going on, I would offer my sincere commendation.
> 
> Colonel Jonathon K. O’Neill
> 
> Second in Command, SGC

 

Tony was looking up at him nervously, probably expecting him to either blow up or break down.  Daniel shrugged.  “Ouch,” he said.  “And this from the man who plays dumb.  I mean, ‘mongering.’  That’s a pretty esoteric word.”

The lieutenant blinked at him.  “Huh?”

“Oh, Jack just likes for people to underestimate his intelligence, so he puts on a good act of stupidity.”

“I see,” Tony said.  “Do you want to start looking over this report now, Daniel?  I think . . .”

“It probably needs a lot of work,” Daniel said, sighing.  “I haven’t even looked at it again.  I hope you don’t mind, I was too much of a coward to tell you outright what happened, but I thought, with all the gossip that Jack has now neatly put an end to, that you would need to know.

“Do you think that will put an end to it?” Tony asked curiously.

Daniel grinned.  “When Jack starts using big words, people sit up and take notice, trust me.  It doesn’t happen often.”

“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

Daniel turned to see Jack standing in the doorway.  “Okay, big words with meaning,” he said.

“That has meaning!” Jack protested.  “There’s a ‘super’ and a ‘fragile’ and a . . . a ‘docious.’”

“It’s not like aloha, Jack, or comtriya even,” Daniel said.

Jack pointed at him, glaring.  “No, don’t you even start the comtriya thing, Daniel, I swear to God.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.

“I’ve read that one,” Tony said suddenly.  “That’s the one where there were all those android duplicates of you.”

“Only one each,” Jack said quickly, as if that somehow made it better.

“I couldn’t quite visualize the gesture you describe, Daniel.  What was it?”

Daniel started to make it, but Jack grabbed his wrists firmly.  “Absolutely not.  Comtriya yourselves silly once I’m gone, but not while I’m here.  Got it?”

Looking down at the hands that encircled his wrists, Daniel said, “Sure, Jack, I’ve got it.  Was there something you came here for, or did you just want to prove you knew a really long nonsense word in case we weren’t sure?”

“Actually I came to see if the e-mail bugged you at all.”

Daniel sighed.  “That it was necessary, yes.  But that’s nothing to do with you, and you just did everything you can about it, right?”  Jack nodded.  “So, is that it?”

“I also thought we might go out for Mongolian barbecue tonight.  I can’t face cooking.”

“Sounds good.  Tony, you want to come?”

Tony glanced at Jack, who was grinning, and said, “Sure, that sounds great.”

* * *

Over the next several days, Daniel had to admit he got more translation done than usual.  Tony was sharp, could read his handwriting, and knew enough about how translation works that he could and would ask questions when he wasn’t sure what he was seeing.

He’d requisitioned a voice-activated tape recorder and presented it to Daniel to help him with his notes.  It proved to be quite useful, since it allowed him to move around his office while making notes.  He used a handheld tape recorder in the field, but in the office he kept forgetting to turn it off and that ran the batteries out.  In the field, he always shut it off as he put it away. In the office, he had no such automatic reflex, so he typically discovered that his notes hadn’t been recorded after about ten or fifteen minutes of attempted recording.  Voice activation took some of the complications out of it.

When Tony disappeared on Tuesday afternoon to get his office and the desks for his sergeants set up, Daniel discovered that he missed him.

Jack dropped by late Tuesday while Daniel was working and when he proceeded to ignore him Jack began to fiddle around with things on the shelves until Daniel finally looked up from what he was working on.  “What is it, Jack?” he asked, a touch of asperity in his tone.

The colonel had his back to him, playing with an ushebti that he would no doubt call a ‘whatsit’ if he was asked what it was.  He fumbled the little funerary figurine back onto the shelf and turned around, lines of irritation etched deep into his face.  “Stupid shit coming down from Washington,” he said.  “Budget stuff, supposedly settled over a month ago.  I was hoping to settle it simply, but it’s not looking like that’s possible.”

Daniel blinked.  “So what does that mean?” he asked.

“It means that Hammond and I have to go to DC for some idiotic hearings.  Leaving Thursday and coming back . . . God knows.”

“Ah,” Daniel said, nodding.  He grimaced sympathetically.  “That sucks.”

“So . . .”  Jack paused, looking irresolute.

“So . . .” Daniel agreed.  “Well, I can just go on home, then, I guess.”

Jack shook his head.  “Actually, I’d rather you stayed at my place.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow.  “Why?”

There was a brief silence while Jack stared at him as if that was the last question he’d expected.  “There’s a couple of reasons, actually,” Jack said earnestly.  “For one, it’s already stocked, and we emptied all the perishables out of your place last week.”  Daniel just waited with an eyebrow raised.  “And I’d like you to, you know, keep an eye on . . things . . .”

“You’re afraid you’ll have trouble convincing me to come back for continued observation if I go home,” Daniel guessed shrewdly.

“I am not!” Jack said indignantly.

“Are so.”

“Am not.”

“Are so.”

“Am not.  Besides, it doesn’t make any sense for you to stock your place up when you’ll just be coming back in a couple of days.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.  “Fine, Jack, I’ll stay at your place.”  Jack looked vindicated.  “You’ve got better movies.”

“Good.  Now, I’m going to be stuck here late tonight.  I’ve got some research to do to try and back up . . .”  He paused.  “Damn them for springing this on us!”

“It’s probably just one of Kinsey’s ploys,” Daniel opined.

“Duh, Daniel!”  Jack glared at him.  “Who else would it be?  Point is, I’m not likely to be leaving until eight or nine tonight.  If you want to go home earlier --”

“Jack, think for a minute who you’re talking to,” Daniel said.  “What say we meet in the commissary around six for dinner?”

“Works.  How are things working out, by the way, with Tony?”

Daniel grinned.  “Better than I expected.  The sergeants start tomorrow and the others are really excited.”

“I did good, then?” Jack asked, raising his eyebrows, looking like a six-year-old waiting for praise.

“You did good, Jack.”

“Good.  Well, see you at six then.”

That night they stayed until ten, and then Wednesday, Daniel didn’t see Jack much at all.  Or Tony for that matter.  Jack and Hammond had a working lunch, and then kept on working till late in the evening.  Tony had spent the day getting things worked out with his sergeants and getting a feel for the protocols that would be involved with working with the other archeologists.  Since Rothman was going offworld around seven Thursday morning, that had to be done Wednesday.  Tony stopped by at five-thirty, though, to assure Daniel that things would be more normal the next day.  He had a few errands to take care of in the morning, but after that he’d be doing his normal duties.

Around eight, Jack came to Daniel’s office looking exhausted.  “Home time, Dannyboy,” he said.  “I need to get a few things together, pack up and see if I can slip in a few hours of sleep somewhere.”

“When are you leaving?” Daniel asked.

“Four a.m.,” Jack said in a disgusted voice.  “Hammond and I are as prepared as we’re getting, so let’s go.”

Daniel left what he was doing and headed to the locker room with Jack.  They showered and changed and went to Jack’s house where the colonel rapidly packed his army green garment bag with both dress and undress blues, uniforms that Daniel almost never saw.  He’d never seen Jack in the undress blues, in fact.  On base, they all wore fatigues most of the time.

When Jack had finished packing, Daniel got him downstairs and nearly force-fed him canned soup and toast.  Dinner eaten, Jack didn’t seem to know what to do with himself.

“Go to bed, Jack,” Daniel ordered.  “I’ll clean up down here.”  He glanced at the clock.  “When do you have to leave by?”

“Two-thirty.”

Daniel nodded.  “So, it’s quarter to ten now.  Go on upstairs and I’ll make sure you’re up by two.”

Surprisingly, Jack did as he was told.  Daniel washed the dishes, tidied the kitchen and then went out into the living room.  He wasn’t about to try to sleep himself before Jack left.  The last thing his friend needed tonight was to have to comfort Daniel out of a nightmare.  He was already worried over leaving him alone.  Daniel had been catching the sidelong worried looks all evening.  He wondered how many people at the SGC had gotten e-mails instructing them to look in on Daniel Jackson.

At two-thirty, he saw Jack off and went to bed.


	47. Chapter 47

Tony was amused by the tone and contents of e-mail from Colonel O’Neill. He’d been frankly surprised that O’Neill hadn’t taken him aside for a lecture on the care and feeding of archeologists, but evidently he’d decided to give it in written form. He probably figured that would make it easier to refer back to at a future time.

He’d been instructed to ensure that Dr. Jackson took breaks and his lunch, and that, if he couldn’t persuade Daniel to go home at a decent hour, he was to go down to the commissary and fix him a plate of sandwiches -- specifics regarding those sandwiches were included -- and leave it at Daniel’s elbow.

Tony checked with Sergeants Press and Greene to make sure they were prepared for their duties today, checked to make sure that the other archeologists knew what to expect from their brand new staff, then went into his office and picked up a few things before wandering over to the main records office to see Captain Tolliver.

He knocked on the captain’s door and walked in at the welcoming gesture. “Can I help you, lieutenant?” he asked kindly. “Having any trouble getting your archeologists organized?”

Tony blinked at the attitude, and sat down in the chair Tolliver had indicated. “Well, first, they’re hardly ‘my’ archeologists,” he said. “Dr. Jackson still heads the department.”

“Nominally,” Tolliver said dismissively. “You’re the real military man in charge, right?”

Tony raised an eyebrow, stunned at this complete lack of understanding. Hadn’t the man _read_ the memo Colonel O’Neill sent out? Tony had, he’d specifically wanted to know what his co-workers would be expecting. “Sir, I can assure you that Dr. Jackson is still very much in charge of the Archeology Department. I am his assistant and head of the department’s administrative staff, Sergeants Greene and Press, but that is the extent of my authority.”

Tolliver looked faintly disappointed, but Tony just smiled blandly at him. The man sighed. “Well, that’s not quite what I was expecting,” he said, and Tony wondered if he’d even bothered to _look_ at the memo. “I thought things might change a little over there.” He sighed. “Civilians,” he added in a long suffering tone.

Tony wanted to make him eat that long suffering tone. He knew the games Tolliver had been playing, and didn’t appreciate this false air of forbearance. His smile stiffened. “They are, sir,” he said briskly. “That’s what I’m here to talk to you about actually. Greene, Press and I are open for business as of this morning, and I’ve got some concerns that I hope you can help me with.”

Tolliver nodded and leaned forward. “How can I help you?”

Tony looked down at his clipboard and licked his lips. He had a strong feeling that his concerns wouldn’t be what Tolliver was expecting.

“As I’m sure you know, I am taking over the file handling for the archeology department.” If he’d read the memo, he would know that, but Tony had serious doubts about that at this point. The captain nodded genially, nevertheless. “Now, that does require a bit of sorting on our part, when we get in items that need to be translated. We will have to determine which man gets which artifacts’ files and whatnot on occasion. However, there are times when something is sent directly to a specific archeologist, and there are times when one of the archeologists sends for a file. On those occasions, we shouldn’t need to do any sorting, because the files should come labeled for that person specifically.” He pointed to a file on Tolliver’s desk that was quite handily marked, ‘Major Greeley’ in the name box. “Like that. I had four files on my desk yesterday that it took me a half hour to run down. The four files in question were requested by Dr. Rothman before he went on his mission this morning, but I didn’t know that until Dr. Balinsky went into Rothman’s office to see what he was working on and found a note referring to those files in particular. You have a very efficient routing system here, we could have used something like it at my last posting, in fact, but it doesn’t do me much good when I get a file labeled ‘linguistics’ and nothing else.”

Tolliver’s eyebrows had risen. “Well, lieutenant,” he said, laying subtle stress on the rank, “you’re going to have to get into the swing of the way things are done here.”

Tony took a deep breath, having anticipated this sort of reaction. He flipped the pages of his clipboard and pulled out a sheet headed ‘File Transfer Procedures.’ “Is it too much to ask, sir, that we follow procedures?”

Tolliver’s face went a little red as he looked down at the page, which had a tidy little signature at the bottom. ‘Captain Geoffery Tolliver.’ “I don’t think you appreciate the time pressures on us, lieutenant,” he said.

“I see. Well, sir, I’m not sure, but I think we all have the same time pressures.” Tolliver’s lips compressed. “And I presume that you’re aware that we have no department or even an office called ‘linguistics.’”

“Of course, I’m aware of that! Linguistics is shorthand for an archeological object that needs to be translated. That’s what I mean about getting into the swing of things here.”

Tony sat silently. He wasn’t sure how those four files, regarding objects that had already been translated, merited that title if that was, in fact, what it meant, but now wasn’t the time to bring it up. This was awkward. He’d been expecting to have this conversation when he had the ability of consulting with Colonel O’Neill to back him up. He didn’t want to wait for the colonel’s return, however, because he was determined to begin as he meant to go on. He took a deep breath. “I see, sir.” He stood up. “Well, as you’ve pointed out, I am new here, and both Greene and Press say that they are unfamiliar with the protocols you have described.” In fact, both Greene and Press had been clerks in other departments and had been appalled when shown the file transfer forms on the files sent to the archeology department. There was a flash of comprehension in Tolliver’s eyes that Tony was glad to see. It meant that they both knew that Tony was well aware that Tolliver’s handling of the archeology files was substandard. “So, you may be getting some of the files back until we all get into the ‘swing’ of things. I know that may cause problems in terms of those time pressures you mentioned, but it can’t be helped, I guess.” Smiling politely, he waited for the nod that dismissed him.

He made a couple of similar stops, nothing nearly so pressing as the records office, and then headed down to Daniel’s office where he found the man typing madly.

Daniel didn’t even look up. “Sorry, Tony, this one’s urgent,” he said. “Not bypassing you, just . . .” His voice trailed off as he continued to work feverishly.

Tony looked over his shoulder and saw hastily scrawled but clearly legible notes. “Well, I’m here now. I could take over.”

Daniel shook his head, his fingers still flying across the keyboard. “I’m on it, Tony. You can just go ahead and catch up on your reading.”

Tony raised an eyebrow. “Daniel, are you trying to get around --”

Dr. Jackson turned sharply, eyes frighteningly intent. “Not now, Tony,” he said curtly. Then the turned back before the younger man could blink.

Tony backed away and sat down, watching Daniel work at a rapid pace. Something was clearly going on, but Tony had evidently left his scorecard somewhere else because he had no clue what it was. He finally stopped, read through, eyes flicking back and forth very quickly as he compared the typed text with the written. Then he pressed the button that started the document printing and reached for the phone. “I’ve got it, tell Steve I’m on my way.” Then he hung up, snatched the pages off the printer and hurried out of the room.

This was like nothing he’d seen before, and since part of his brief was to get as thorough an understanding of Daniel’s job as was possible, he followed.

They arrived in a room Tony hadn’t seen yet. With computers, consoles, various kinds of sensor equipment and machines he didn’t even begin to recognize lining the walls of the room, it looked like some kind of mission control. Daniel went straight across to the wall of windows through which Tony saw what could only be the stargate. There was a huge thunk and Tony saw that there were things like nodes spaced evenly around the circle that were shifting and then lighting up.

A calm voice whose owner he couldn’t see said, “Chevron four encoded.”

Daniel had handed his translation to a man wearing captain’s bars on his shoulder. “You’re certain of this translation?” he asked. Tony felt a small stirring of indignation that the man would even question Daniel’s translation, but Daniel only grinned.

“I double-checked it, Steve. It’s good to go.”

That calm voice came again. “Chevron five encoded.”

The man’s face creased in a grin. “Thanks, Dr. Jackson, you’re a lifesaver.”

“I just wish I could come along and help,” Daniel said wistfully.

“Thanks, again, Dr. Jackson, but I think this covers us,” Steve said, waving the paper. “This one part of the document was just a touch beyond Sindar’s capacity. He said you’d be able to handle it, no problem.”

Tony couldn’t see the man who was speaking, but there was another thunk, another lit up node and then, “Chevron six encoded.”

“It’s kind of archaic,” Daniel said. “I’ll give him some extra tutoring when he comes back,” he added with a wink.

“I’ll be sure and tell him,” Steve replied, grinning as he turned towards the other end of the room, at the right side of the wall of windows.

This time Tony could see the man, a middle-aged technical sergeant with graying hair. “Chevron seven is locked.”

Tony’s attention, split though it was between the nodes and the various people he’d been listening to, was abruptly seized wholly by the circular device that was partially visible through the window. A vast blue light fountained out, emitting a noise that sounded very like the water it resembled. Tony walked slowly towards the row of consoles under the window, drawn forward by intense curiosity as the fountain drew back into the ring where it undulated, sending blue coruscating light throughout both this room and the room visible through the windows. There must be a door downstairs on the right, because Tony saw the captain, Steve, emerge from that direction onto the floor below. A moment later Daniel showed up beside him. Tony hadn’t even seen him leave the room. The two men spoke briefly, both seemingly unaffected by the incredible phenomenon that was only thirty or so feet away from them. There were other men, armed men, scattered about the room, who also seemed almost bored by the glimmering . . . thing. Steve shook Daniel’s hand then turned, went up the ramp and disappeared through the vertical pool of viscous blue light.

A long moment later, the light vanished, and Steve was completely gone. Belatedly, Tony’s mind provided him with the phrase ‘event horizon’ from his reading.

He’d heard the announcements over the speakers, “Unscheduled Offworld Activation,” but had no frame of reference for the words. Now he did, and he wasn’t altogether sure what to make of it.

“Pretty incredible, isn’t it?” This was the voice that had been announcing the activities of the chevrons. Tony looked down at the man who was grinning up at him. No doubt he’d seen dozens of reactions like Tony’s, and Tony couldn’t begrudge him his apparent amusement.

“Yeah, you could say that,” he said. “Wow.”

“You do get sort of used to it after a while,” the tech sergeant said. The name badge pinned to his undress blues read Jones. “You’re Dr. Jackson’s new assistant, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Tony said, turning back to stare again at the inactive ring of stone that sat silently, apparently harmlessly, in the next room. “I’m Lt. Sciaparelli.”

“Nice to meet you,” Jones said.

Daniel walked up. “Tony? What are you doing here?”

Tony shook himself and turned to face his new supervisor. “Learning more about your job, sir,” he said.

Daniel nodded pleasantly at Sgt. Jones. “How’s your mother doing, Gary?” he asked.

“Great, actually,” Jones said, smiling up at Daniel. “She’ll be coming home on Monday.”

“Glad to hear it,” Daniel said, seeming to genuinely mean it. “So, I suppose you’ll be out for a few days next week.” Jones nodded. “Take good care of her.”

“Oh, I will, if she’ll let me.”

Both men laughed and Daniel put a hand on Tony’s shoulder and guided him back out of the room. “You seem pretty stunned, so I’m guessing you saw the gate in action for the first time.”

“Ummm . . . yeah,” Tony said, feeling dumbstruck.

“You should have been here four years ago, the day when no one knew what to expect. The only person who didn’t drop his teeth was Jack.”

“Colonel O’Neill?”

Daniel nodded. “He was a little bit different back then, very mission focused, and since that mission was to go through the gate and blow it the hell up, one can’t blame him for being a little . . . less than thrilled at the outcome of the test.”

Tony nodded slowly. “So, what was that?” he asked.

“SG-9, under Major Kovacek, is negotiating a treaty. They have one of my students along, largely in a ceremonial capacity since the people there speak a familiar language. They use a variant on Sanskrit as their formal language, and Sindar is more than capable of handling it most of the time, but that got a little too archaic and esoteric for him. They called a recess in the meetings to get a translation, but they didn’t dare take too long about it. That’s why I was in such a hurry. No one’s life was depending on it, or I would have given them the written notes because it would be faster. But under these circumstances, it was better to go for a more polished appearance, since they may have to take that translation into the meetings with them.”

“That makes sense. How often does that sort of thing happen?”

“Not often. More often I get called into the control room to translate on the fly for a team that’s gotten itself into deep . . . water . . . to try and help them get out of it again.” Tony could think of several words Daniel could have substituted for ‘water’ and was amused by his choice. They reached the office and Daniel said, “I’ve got a couple of translations that you could work on transcribing if you want to, if you’ve got time.”

“Sure,” Tony said, reflecting that if he was going to keep reading reports, he might have to come in on the weekend to manage it.

They worked the rest of the day in companionable silence, and Tony was beginning to regret the thought that he’d have to eventually start working in his own office. Daniel didn’t look anywhere near to done at six o’clock, and Tony went to the commissary to make up the sandwiches according to Jack’s recipe. A sergeant from the kitchen staff said, “You must be Dr. Jackson’s new assistant.”

“I am,” he replied, wondering if it was really that obvious.

“I wondered who Colonel O’Neill would get to do it for him while he was gone. We’ve all done it a time or two. That boy.” She shook her head as she walked out of the room.

He had trouble listening to be people calling Daniel a boy given that he was almost ten years older than Tony, but he supposed that the sergeant who just left might be old enough to be Daniel’s mother.

He took the sandwiches up to Dr. Jackson and put them on the desk at his elbow, just as O’Neill had instructed. He went to shut a few things down in his own office and came back to find Daniel absently munching on one of them.

“Good night, Dr. Jackson,” he said.

“G’night, Tony,” Daniel said through a bite of sandwich, and Tony left. As he signed out, he asked, “Are we allowed to come in on weekends?”

“If you get permission from your supervisor,” the man said. “Written permission, sent here.”

Tony nodded and resolved to ask Dr. Jackson to send that permission tomorrow.


	48. Chapter 48

Daniel headed home at around eight o’clock, too tired to see straight. He hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before and it was catching up. He cooked himself a dinner of scrambled eggs and sausage, flopped down on the sofa and watched _Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy._ It was outrageously funny, hilariously inaccurate as far as anything Egyptian went, and exactly what Daniel needed. He just wished there was someone with him making sarcastic remarks.

He couldn’t help wondering which one of the team of Jack and Daniel was Abbott and which Costello. He had a feeling that it switched depending on the situation.

The phone rang at quarter past ten and he picked it up. “O’Neill residence,” he said, hoping it was either Jack or someone from the mountain. If it was one of Jack’s presumed outside friends or his family, Daniel wasn’t sure how he’d explain his presence here with Jack absent.

“Daniel, glad to see you’re home. Had a little bet with the general that you’d be hard at work at your desk.”

“Charming,” Daniel said. “Who won? And how are the hearings going?”

“Hammond,” Jack said easily, and Daniel glowered. “And it’s hard to say how the hearings are going. We’re going to be here all of tomorrow for sure, though.”

“Okay,” Daniel replied.

“So, what did you have for dinner?”

“HoHos and half a bottle of Australian wine. I hope you weren’t saving it for something.”

Jack made a strangled sound. “You ate my HoHos?” he demanded.

Daniel blinked. “They don’t improve with age, Jack, you know that, right?”

“Hopefully we’ll see you on Saturday,” Jack said. “Anything exciting going on at work?”

“Nothing to speak of. Emergency translation for SG-9 when something got a little too archaic for Sindar -- er -- Lt. Prakash, other than that just normal stuff. Getting a lot done with someone else doing my transcribing.”

“Glad to hear it. I’ll let you know what’s up tomorrow night.”

“Okay.”

Daniel headed up to bed and slept heavily through the night. He had a couple of wretched dreams, but nothing that woke him.

The next day passed quickly with a number of fairly straightforward translations from Goa’uld. Both Teal’c and Sam came by to check up on him. He ate lunch with them and Tony, and he sent the guards at the entry gate an e-mail giving Tony permission to come in on weekends.

As Tony got up to leave at six, Daniel said, “Now don’t abuse that, mind you. It’s only for reading.”

“How late are you staying today, sir?” Tony asked. Daniel opened his mouth, but the man rolled his eyes. “Sorry, I mean ‘Daniel.’ It’s a hard habit to break.”

“I know. And I don’t know how late I’ll be staying today. This has me pretty absorbed, but I’ll see you tomorrow for certain. I’ll probably be in around nine or ten.”

“Good night, Daniel,” Tony said.

Daniel kept working. He felt like a cat chasing his tail with this particular translation. A combination of poetic language and science made for rough going, but it was utterly fascinating. He made a detour by Sam’s lab to pick up a book on physics for reference and came back to his office to find the phone ringing. He picked it up and said, “Hello?”

“Daniel, what are you doing there? It’s seven-thirty.”

“Hello to you, too, Jack,” Daniel said wryly. “Did you win your bet tonight?”

“No, damn it!” Jack growled and Daniel laughed. “What are you doing there?”

“Chasing my tail through a translation of some kind of physics text that appears to have been written by a poet. How did the hearings go today?”

“We’ve won a reprieve. Apparently we’ve got a friend in a high place, at least for now. God only knows when that might change again.”

“So when will you be back?”

“Tomorrow morning. The flight we’re catching should touch down around eleven-thirty in Colorado.”

“Okay,” Daniel said.

“See you tomorrow, then,” Jack said. “Don’t take any work home with you tonight. And you need to head home soon, okay?”

“Sure, Dad,” Daniel said. “Have a good night, Jack.”

He hung up the phone and looked down at the translation he was working on. He reached out and flipped the physics book open and started reading.

A voice spoke from behind him, startling him. “Dr. Daniel Jackson,” Grady drawled in an oddly insulting voice and Daniel turned to see him standing in the doorway. “So, was O’Neill whispering sweet nothings?”

Daniel blinked at him. “What?” he asked. “Is there something I can do for you, major?”

“You know, I think you have most of the base fooled,” Grady said, stepping into the room with a swagger. Daniel remained silent, uncertain what the man was on about. Was he drunk? “They all seem to think, especially the people in charge, that you’re some kind of innocent victim.”

Daniel shook his head. “Look, Major Grady, I’ve got work to do. If there’s nothing I can do for you, maybe you should be heading home.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t talk to me that way, Dr. Jackson,” Grady said, taking several steps closer. Daniel began to feel a little alarmed. Grady’s mood and manner were bizarre. He was staring at Daniel, his eyes seeming to rake up and down his body. Daniel stood up, preparing to push past him out of the corner between the wall and the desk. Grady put a hand on each of his shoulders and pushed him back down onto his stool and stood looming over him. “Dr. Daniel Jackson, interstellar slut. I’ve been reading through the reports, and you have been shaking your ass at more people and aliens than I can easily count.”

Knitting his brows, Daniel bit his lip. The man had to be drunk or something. But SG-6 hadn’t been offworld since the mission to recover the naquadah generator from Rigar’s people two weeks before, so it wasn’t likely to be some weird alien influence. “I’m really not sure --”

“I’m really not sure you should be speaking,” Grady said. “I didn’t ask you a question, civilian, I made a statement.”

“Back off,” Daniel said, glaring at the bastard and giving him a solid shove away.

Grady’s eyes narrowed. “What, you don’t want to put out for an ordinary human?” he asked. “Or is my rank not high enough?”

“You are confused or misinformed,” Daniel said coldly, feeling himself trembling with rage. “Now get the hell out of my office!”

“This isn’t over, Jackson,” Grady said, glowering, and then he turned and left the office.

Daniel stood, shaking from head to foot, stunned by the menace and . . . something more, something he couldn’t put a name to. He shook his head and looked down at the project he’d been working on. He wasn’t going to be able to concentrate again. Damn it, this would happen on a Friday with Jack and Hammond out of town. He’d have to take this up with them as soon as they came in. He’d be on base when they got here, so it wouldn’t be a problem.

Sighing, he closed up his office and went out to his car. Climbing in, he drove back to Jack’s house, let himself in and went inside, setting all the alarms. How the hell could anyone look over his record with the SGC and come to the conclusion that he was asking for it? That he wanted Rigar to . . . whatever it was that they were saying. He presumed it amounted to something a bit more than fingers.

He climbed the stairs and showered. He’d eaten about four sandwiches that Tony had left for him without even really noticing, so he wasn’t hungry. It wasn’t late enough to go to bed, though, so he tried to watch some movies to distract him. The comedies weren’t cutting it though, so he dropped in something that Jack had told him was a staple of the American cinema. _Jurassic Park_ turned out to be an excellent distraction. He followed it with _The Lost World_ , then headed up to bed.

The second time he woke up he cursed Grady for being such a prick. The nightmares were killing him tonight. After a third attempt at sleep ended with another nightmare, he got up. It was six anyway, so it wasn’t like he was getting up all that early. He got up and took a shower. He made breakfast, then threw it out, unable to face it. Cleaning up the mess, he straightened up the house, took out the trash and then decided that he’d head for the mountain. No one would even think twice about him showing up at eight-thirty on a Saturday.

He got dressed, left a note for Jack in case he came home first, then went out to his car. He was just turning the key in the ignition when he felt an arm snake around his neck from behind. Unable to believe what was happening, he fought back as hard as he could, but had no luck in throwing whoever it was off. A hand found the pressure points in his neck and as he grayed out, he realized that he hadn’t even thought to yell.


	49. Chapter 49

Jack called the house at seven thirty and let the phone ring about fifteen or sixteen times just in case Dannyboy was in the shower. Finally he hung up. Then he dialed the mountain and let that phone ring a while. No answer there either. He headed back to join Hammond who tilted his head curiously. “You reach him?”

“Nope. Not at home or at work. Probably, knowing him, he’s partway between the two.”

Hammond chuckled. “You want to bet on it?”

“No sir, I’ve learned my lesson,” Jack said fervently.

* * *

Tony got into the mountain at around eight and started reading through the reports he’d requisitioned the day before so he’d have a good amount of reading material for the weekend. He’d grabbed a plate of donuts, which seemed to be standard issue for anyone working in Dr. Jackson’s office, on his way in, so he settled himself at his table and started eating and reading.

* * *

Daniel opened his eyes and squinted into close, stuffy darkness. He had a headache and the surface he was lying on was desperately uncomfortable. It felt rather as if he were lying across the backseat of a car, but that didn’t make any sense. He reached with his hands and discovered that they were bound tightly behind him.

This banished the last vestiges of fuzziness from his brain. He tried to move his feet and discovered that they seemed to be tied at his knees and at his ankles. What the hell was going on? He tried to remember the mission, where they were, when they’d been attacked, what might have happened to the others.

As the events trickled back to him, he felt a cold horror growing in the pit of his stomach. He wasn’t on a mission. He wasn’t on another world. He’d been abducted out of his own car where it sat in the driveway of Jack’s house by . . . he’d never seen a face, barely gotten a whiff. The man’s hand had been gloved, his arm covered by a sleeve. He had no idea who’d grabbed him, but there was one guess he could make, though it seemed utterly incredible.

The budgetary meeting hadn’t gone according to Kinsey’s plans, so maybe the senator wanted leverage. It was too impossibly far out, though, too bizarre. He didn’t buy it. Apart from that, who the hell would want an infamous, outcast archeologist? He didn’t have anyone obvious to demand ransom from, none of his friends was wealthy and his grandfather would probably say it served him right for being such a knucklehead. That is if the doctors bothered to tell him that his grandson had been kidnapped.

It didn’t make sense. Daniel gave up worrying about it for the moment and started trying to figure out a way to get free. He was definitely in the backseat of a moving car, but there was something over the top of him, something heavy and very thick that blocked out light and a good bit of air. He drew in a deep breath and started to call out for help, but after the first shout he heard music start blaring from the radio at what seemed like fifty decibels.

Damn it, that wouldn’t work. He started shifting, trying to get whatever it was off the top of him. It wasn’t easy, and he abruptly realized that he had been seat belted into the damned car. The middle seat belt was strapped around his waist and buckled. As he shifted, he managed to get the buckle digging uncomfortably into his ribcage, but not much more than that.

He fell still and took several deep breaths, an attempt at calm that was not aided in the least by the loud music from the front seat. Classical. The station he usually listened to in his car. Weird.

He focused on the bonds on his wrists as the only ones he was likely to be able to affect. Slowly, he worked at the knots, but he was getting nowhere. Whoever the bastard was, he had some idea of how to tie knots.

The car slowed and veered, as if getting off a freeway. There was a series of turns, and then the music quieted. He felt the car go over the curb, and he let out as loud a yell as he could hoping against home that somebody would be nearby and hear him. The car pulled forward to a stop, then he felt the engine turn off and the whole car shook as somebody got out of the front seat. The slamming of the door seemed oddly familiar . . . no . . .

The rear door by his feet opened and the thing that was lying over the top of him was dragged off. He twisted to look up, blinking at the brightness that at first merely silhouetted a masculine figure. “Not smart, Dr. Jackson, not smart at all,” said a very familiar voice.

Daniel squinted up at him, finally making out the features. What the hell was going on here? “Grady?” he asked, astonished beyond measure. Major Grady stood, bent just enough for Daniel to be able to see him through the open car door. There was a heat in his gaze that had Daniel utterly baffled, and he took a deep breath. “What’s going on?”

Grady lifted a hand, one finger upraised. “First rule,” he said, his eyes glinting, “do not speak until spoken to.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Daniel demanded.

Grady smiled. “Go on, Daniel,” he said, his tone weirdly intimate and . . . excited? “Break as many rules as you want to. I’ll enjoy punishing you later.”

Daniel’s eyes widened in shock. “What?!”

Grady leaned into the car and Daniel kicked out with his feet. Even bound as they were, they made a pretty formidable weapon. He caught Grady across the chest with them, knocking him back. The man ran into some kind of shelving from the noise and Daniel felt a sick glee. “You are going to regret that, Daniel,” Grady said, and Daniel heard footsteps. He tried to roll over and sit up and realized abruptly that he was in his own car. Grady had taken him from Jack’s house in his own bloody car!

Which meant that there was no way to track them unless Grady had left his car near Jack’s house. Somehow Daniel doubted it. Once Grady was sure he was at Jack’s place for the night, all he’d had to do was find some place to park his car and then walk back.

The seatbelt was still interfering with Daniel’s attempts to move. He was growling and thrashing about when the door next to his head opened. Grady reached in over the top of him. Daniel leaned up, reaching out, trying to bite him. Grady laughed and pushed him face down on the seat again. Pressing down on Daniel’s back, he fiddled with the buckle, undoing it. “Do you work for Kinsey?” Daniel asked, trying to make some sense of this bizarre behavior. Where were they? Someone’s house? Grady’s house?

“That bastard?” Grady asked contemptuously. “I hardly think so. You know damned well that he’s trying to shut the program down.”

Seizing him under the arms, Grady dragged him out of the car and then threw him over his shoulder. Daniel arched and twisted, trying to make Grady drop him. The bastard delivered a stinging swat to Daniel’s backside and said, “Behave yourself or I’ll have to get nasty.”

After the swat, Grady’s hand returned to linger on the flesh of Daniel’s rear end briefly, and Daniel’s stomach turned over. What the hell was this? He tried to reason through his options. If he struggled hard enough to get away from Grady, he’d just land on the floor, Grady would get pissed, and he’d pick him up again, maybe after knocking him out this time.

So struggling was pointless. He was too efficiently tied to be able to get away. Instead, he tried to go over what Grady had said to him the night before, seeking some kind of connection, but somehow, being draped over the shoulder of one of his co-workers while bound hand and foot was causing his brain to lock up a bit.

Grady opened the door into the house and took Daniel inside, then opened a door directly opposite the garage door and started going down a flight of steps. “What are you doing?” Daniel asked, alarmed by this state of affairs.

“As if you didn’t already know,” Grady said, almost purring. A hand reached up and stroked Daniel’s butt again and the connections slammed into place in his mind. Grady had wanted him to ‘put out.’ Given his present behavior, he clearly hadn’t recognized Daniel’s noncomprehension for what it was. And he didn’t seem likely to take no for an answer. But maybe . . . if he’d misunderstood, misread the cues . . . maybe he could be reasoned with.

“Grady, this is crazy!” Daniel exclaimed, fighting to speak against the shoulder digging into his gut. “You have got to stop. I don’t want this, and you . . . you really don’t want to do this.”

“Oh, believe me, I do,” Grady said, squeezing the back of Daniel’s thigh. Daniel gasped a wordless protest. “And I know you do, too. You’re just playing along like a good little slut.”

Daniel’s heart was pounding in his chest. Grady . . . Grady had said that last night, he’d called Daniel a slut . . . he thought . . . oh God. He thought Daniel liked this sort of thing? Or did he care?

“Grady, you’ve got this all wrong,” Daniel said, hoping against hope that he could get through to the man. “You’re confused. I never . . . I’ve never . . .”

“You heard the rules, slut,” Grady said, smacking him on the ass again.

Daniel shook his head desperately, watching the exit recede with every step down. “I’m not playing a game here, Grady! I don’t want this!” He gulped. His words seemed to be bouncing off some sort of mental armor. Striving to keep his voice calm, he said, “Grady, if you don’t stop this right now, I will report you.”

They had reached the bottom of the stairs and Grady walked forward, putting Daniel down in a sitting position on something that vaguely resembled a bed. He felt his breath start coming in short, sharp gasps as he realized what this place looked like. The room was large and open, and clearly adapted from a space that someone had once used as a den or family room at some point in the past. The walls had a chair rail with dark paneled wainscoting beneath and yellow sprigged wallpaper above. There were counters and a sink against one wall, with a set up that looked like it might once have been used as a bar. Hanging on the wall opposite, under the TV/VCR that was attached to the wall near the ceiling, was a collection of objects whose use Daniel didn’t want to consider too closely. There were also odd bits of furniture, but Daniel didn’t have the time or mental capacity to focus on any of it just now, not with Grady standing right in front of him. Nevertheless, it was clear that Grady had some interesting hobbies, ones that made Daniel’s blood run cold.


	50. Chapter 50

Grady put a hand on Daniel’s left shoulder and the other under his chin, forcing him to look up. His gray eyes were hot and knowing, and the lustful expression on his face made Daniel cringe internally. Why? Why did this kind of thing happen to him? “I wouldn’t recommend that, Dr. Jackson,” Grady said. “Everything we do here today, and will do on future occasions, will be recorded. If you report me, those recordings will undoubtedly get out, and I’m sure you don’t want that.”

Daniel blinked up at him. His gut roiled with the certain knowledge that there was nothing he could do to stop this man from doing whatever he wanted. That had been hopeless since he’d lost consciousness in Jack’s driveway. He would report him, assuming he got the chance, and Grady was right. If there were tapes, they’d undoubtedly get out, or at least news of them would. And there was nothing whatsoever Daniel could do about that. He fought to keep his emotions under control. Losing it now would not help him.

He took a deep breath and said, “This is insane. I’m not what you think I am, I’m not anything like what you think I am.” Reason might or might not have any effect, but it was all Daniel had.

Grady smiled down at him, eyes straying across Daniel’s bound body with a lecherous gleam that made Daniel shudder. Grady’s hand was still under his chin, holding his head up. The fingers were gently stroking along his jaw line, making Daniel’s skin crawl. The man leaned a little closer. “I doubt that’s true, and I’m usually right about these things.” Usually? Daniel blanched as he realized what that implied. Had Grady done this before? Hell. “And if it is true, if you’re not what I’m certain you are, a slut who’s just playing this up . . . then by the time I’m done with you, you will be.”

Daniel felt unbelievably helpless. At least with Rigar he had a reason, a purpose to understand, this was just . . . bizarre. Grady had clearly done this before, his execution of this kidnapping was too deft for Daniel to believe otherwise. And if he’d done this before, he’d just as clearly gotten away with it before. How often? How many victims had he . . .

The fact that Daniel wasn’t about to let him get away with it this time didn’t change what was about to happen to him, though. At this moment, his friends had no idea that he was missing, much less where to start looking for him.

Of course, it did suggest that Grady wasn’t likely to kill him, which was, in its own way, a plus. The hand on his chin stroked up his cheek, sending chills of dread through him. Grady seemed to sense the shudder that ran through his frame, because he smiled and, bending slightly, kissed him on the lips.

“Get away from me!” Daniel growled, trying to pull away, but he overbalanced and landed heavily on his side on this table . . . or was it a bed. It was padded, whatever the hell it was.

Grady laughed and pulled him upright again. “I thought surely you and O’Neill had it going pretty hot and heavy, the way he’s been keeping his eye on you for the last couple of weeks,” he said.

“That’s called friendship, you bastard!” Daniel snarled. “Let me go!”

Smack! Grady’s hand hit Daniel’s cheek in a stinging slap. “Quiet, slut!” he said sharply. Daniel blinked, staring in shock at the other man. Grady smiled, evidently pleased by this reaction. “I have no intention of marking you, but I have lots of practice in causing pain that leaves no marks.”

Daniel would just bet he did. He took a long shuddering breath and looked up at the major. His heart was thudding in his chest. “Jack is due back this morning,” he said conversationally, hoping it would break through Grady’s focus.

One eyebrow raised slightly in an amused expression, Grady reached out his hands and started undoing the buttons of Daniel’s shirt, revealing the undershirt beneath. “I checked the roster last night,” he said. “They’re not due back till Monday evening according to that.” He pulled Daniel’s shirt as far open as he could given that it was still tucked in and dipped his fingers under the neck of the undershirt, watching Daniel’s eyes for his reaction, smiling as Daniel flinched away. The feel of those fingers directly against Daniel’s flesh made him shudder again.

“You know Jack called last night,” Daniel said, recalling Grady’s question about ‘sweet nothings.’ So far, objecting to the bastard’s actions had made no impression. Maybe appealing to self preservation would. “That’s what he told me. He and Hammond are probably on a plane right now.”

“Lying isn’t going to help you,” Grady said softly, licking his lips. He stroked his hand up Daniel’s neck and into his hair. Even knowing that it was hopeless, Daniel tried to pull away, but Grady grabbed his hair and wrenched his head back. “And fighting won’t do you any good either,” he said, grinning maniacally. “It does make it more fun for me, though.”

His neck hurting from the awkward position, Daniel glared up at Grady. “Damn it, I’m not lying! Jack will expect to seem me either at the mountain or his house later today.”

Grady grinned and leaned very close to Daniel’s face. “Then he’ll be disappointed,” the idiot said, clearly not believing him. His breath was hot on Daniel’s face, and smelled of mint. His hand was still tangled in the archeologist’s hair, and Daniel found himself wondering what moron had thought Grady suitable for the stargate program. Abruptly, the bastard bent and licked up the side of Daniel’s neck, then sucked an earlobe into his mouth.

Daniel closed his eyes, wishing he could escape the intimate touch, but with one hand on his shoulder and another wrapped in his hair, he couldn’t move easily. The bastard was leaning hard against Daniel’s legs, holding him firmly in place as his mouth explored his captive’s neck.

Rage boiled in Daniel’s gut. “Damn it, Grady! Stop it!” Daniel gasped as Grady bit down hard on his shoulder muscle through the material of his undershirt.

His captor then pulled back and glowered down at him, his gaze hot. He grabbed Daniel’s feet and swung them up onto the end of the table. Swiftly, he untied the rope binding Daniel’s ankles, which, with the binding still in place just below his knees, netted Daniel almost no real freedom. He watched, heart beating in his throat, as Grady reached under the surface of the table, one hand resting on Daniel’s ankle while he reached with the other, eyes distant as he searched. Since the man was so preoccupied, Daniel had begun to work at the bonds on his wrists again, knowing that he’d be better off if he could just get his hands free.

He froze solid when Grady pulled out a cuff from under the left-hand corner of the table. Chain dangled from it as it emerged, and, panic seizing him, Daniel tried automatically to swing away. Grady hadn’t really let go of his ankle, though, and he gave Daniel’s left leg a tug. He couldn’t move his ankles very far apart the way he was still tied. “Be a good little slut,” he muttered, his eyes glinting.

“Get off me!” Daniel growled, trying hard to pull his leg out of Grady’s grip as he continued to work wildly at the bindings on his wrists. What that cuff represented absolutely petrified him. Being bound by chains made his escape that much more unlikely. The cuff clicked closed around his left ankle and Daniel jerked away. Grady released his hold on the left leg and watched as the chain rattled to its length and stopped sharply. “Grady, this is crazy!”

Grady reached out and took hold of Daniel’s other ankle and drew it slowly down the table against Daniel’s resistance. As he did so, he was reaching under the table. When he had a second cuff in hand, he looked up and spoke. “Tell me, Daniel, are you saying that I’m crazy?” The second cuff clicking around Daniel’s right ankle punctuated his question and sent a chill through the archeologist.

Grady’s tone made the question a dangerous one, and Daniel bit his lip, choosing not to speak. What could he say, after all? ‘Well, Grady, if you’re not crazy, you’re criminal.’ He doubted that would go over well at all.

He kept working at the bindings on his wrists, though, urgently. He didn’t know if those chains locked, and what he knew about people who engaged voluntarily in these kinds of games told him that most of their equipment didn’t lock -- to avoid accidents.

Grady untied Daniel’s shoes and slipped them off his feet, dropping them to the side before pulling his socks down through the cuffs. He carefully pulled the hems of Daniel’s pants out of the cuffs before tightening them more firmly over Daniel’s ankles. It was all very methodical, and Grady seemed very focused on his work. Daniel watched in mixed horror and fascination while he continued to try and free his wrists. Grady untied the rope around Daniel’s knees, then bent and did something under the table that pulled Daniel’s ankles closer to the corners of the surface, spreading his legs apart. Daniel’s heart rate picked up.

The man stood up and rested his hands on Daniel’s bare feet, fingering the silver cuffs, which were padded inside, presumably to avoid undue bruising and tearing of the skin. “You know, Daniel, these are very unusual. I had to order them carefully because they really lock.” Daniel gulped and Grady smiled. “The key is upstairs in my dresser, so now that they’re snug, you’re not getting out of them without my help.”

Daniel didn’t know whether to believe him or not. He just stared at the objects. He could make out something that looked like it might be a keyhole, but for all he knew, it was just some kind of bluff to make him give up hope.

Grady gave Daniel’s right foot a shake, eyes shining with amusement. “What is it, Daniel? Cat got your tongue?” He licked his lips, gazing at Daniel’s mouth. “That thoroughly educated, highly flexible tongue?”

Daniel looked away from the lascivious look in Grady’s eyes. The hand on his foot moved, and Daniel started breathing deeply, focusing on the bindings on his wrists. His head whipped back around a moment later when he heard the sound of a drawer opening. Grady was standing with his back to him bent over a drawer in the kitchenette. Daniel looked at him for a moment. He was dressed like anyone, blue jeans, sports shoes, green golf shirt. His dark red hair was cropped close to his head, of course. He didn’t look like a bastard who would hold an unwilling man prisoner with . . . Daniel’s mind refused to speculate further on what Grady’s intentions clearly had to be. No marks.

Somehow that wasn’t overly reassuring.

Daniel’s wrists were beginning to feel slick, but he had a sense that the knots might finally be beginning to come free.

Grady turned back with a pair of long slender scissors in his right hand. Daniel’s eyes froze to the gleaming steel in the other man’s hand. Grady paused, enjoying the effect he was having on Daniel, who forced himself to look up into Grady’s avid eyes. Very seriously, certain this was his last chance to persuade the man that he’d just made a poor choice of partner for this ‘game,’ he spoke with as much sincerity and pleading as he could muster. “Please don’t go any further with this, Nate.” He hoped that using Grady’s first name would get through to him.

Grady walked forward and put the scissors down on the table between Daniel’s legs. He continued up along Daniel’s body, one hand trailing along his leg and coming to rest atop his thigh where the leg joined the body. “You have beautiful eyes, Daniel,” Grady said, reaching out to stroke Daniel’s cheek with one finger. “And I know you don’t want this. You’ve gone well beyond the point of playacting.”

“So stop it now,” Daniel said, gritting his teeth. “I can understand a mistake -- it’s a pretty damned big one, but I can --”

Grady overrode him. “At this point, I don’t give a damn. Before this weekend is over, you’re going to be begging for what I can give you.” He put his left hand behind Daniel’s head and fastened his mouth over the struggling archeologist’s. His right hand dipped sideways into Daniel’s crotch where he started to fondle Daniel’s penis through his pants.

Daniel’s hands came free abruptly, but he held his position briefly, waiting for an opportunity that he was sure would come in a moment. Grady drew back from the kiss and started back towards Daniel’s feet. After he’d turned but before he’d moved very far, Daniel bent his knees sharply, dragging himself forward. Raising his hands above his head, he brought them down solidly on the back of Grady’s neck. The man went down like a ton of bricks and Daniel looked immediately at the cuffs on his ankles. He pulled at them, pushed at the openings that looked even more like keyholes from up close, and picked up the scissors to try and pry at the lock.

Grady rose up suddenly beside him, and Daniel turned to stab at him with the makeshift weapon, but Grady caught his wrists in viselike hands. Twisting Daniel’s right wrist, he forced him to drop the scissors, which landed with a metallic thump on the carpeted floor below.

“Bolder than you look, I see,” Grady said, eyes narrowed with anger yet alight with glee. “And more resourceful.”

Daniel was breathing hard from his exertions and the fear he now felt at the fury in Grady’s eyes. And the glee. What that pleasure signified made Daniel very worried. “What did you expect?”

“I expected the little mouse of an archeologist I see on base,” Grady said.

Daniel yanked on his wrists and unexpectedly succeeded in pulling them out of the other man’s grasp. Grady was left staring down at his empty hands. Daniel raised his arms again, but Grady stepped back warily and looked up at Daniel’s wrists. “Damn it!” he growled.

Daniel clenched his fists and lowered his arms. “What?”

“You stupid son of a bitch, you weren’t supposed to get bloody!” So saying, Grady turned away and went to the kitchenette again. Daniel, utterly baffled, looked down at his hands. His wrists were a bloody mess. He’d assumed the slick sensation he’d felt had been from sweat, but clearly he’d done himself some pretty serious damage wrenching at those ropes. As soon as he saw the raw wounds, he felt them and hissed.

“What, did you expect I’d sit here calmly while you chained me down?” Daniel demanded.

“You’ll have to wear long sleeves on Monday to cover the bandages,” Grady muttered, and Daniel forbore from pointing out that he had no intention whatsoever of hiding anything. That didn’t seem wise at this stage in the game. Grady returned with bandages, smaller scissors, and some kind of medication. He stopped, looking at Daniel’s expression. “You can’t get away. Not only are those cuffs locked, but so is the door at the top of the steps. It makes no sense whatsoever for you to fight me putting bandages on your wrists.”

“You . . .” Daniel’s words failed him briefly. “If you come near me, I’m going to hit you until you stop getting up.”

Grady’s brows went up. He turned back and put the supplies down on the counter. Walking back over towards Daniel, he took a few blows but managed to subdue Daniel without much effort. Utterly humiliated and out of breath, Daniel lay on his back with Grady leaning over the top of him. “You’re a damned appealing creature, Daniel Jackson,” he said, reaching down under the table again. He had one of Daniel’s arms gripped firmly, and had the other one pinned between his body and Daniel’s side.

Daniel started yelling curses at him in languages he knew Grady couldn’t begin to understand. Finally, the man located whatever he was looking for and stood up partway, bringing a strap up with him. He forced Daniel’s right arm down to the table and pulled the strap down across Daniel’s midsection, pulling it snug through some kind of connection that was beneath the table on the other side. Daniel immediately started to try and get his arms free, but Grady was prepared. He pulled another strap out from under the table, this one not attached to anything and slid it under Daniel very quickly, despite the other man’s struggles.

Daniel fell silent as, using the second strap, Grady bound his arms firmly to his sides about halfway between his shoulders and his elbows. Now, with his arms attached to his sides more or less to his elbow, he couldn’t maneuver to get free of the lower strap that wrapped around the table.

The bastard must have a high opinion of himself if he thought the sex was going to make up for this rough treatment.

Now that Daniel was bound so firmly, Grady swiftly cleaned, medicated and bandaged his injured wrists. Daniel had fallen still and silent, not remotely resigned to his fate, but tired and unable to think of a practical plan. He had no idea how much time had passed, but he was sure that Jack was probably still in the air. No one besides Tony knew anything about his plans for the day, and the lieutenant would probably think Daniel had just decided to stay home if he didn’t show at the mountain.

Jack would wonder and worry when he found the note Daniel had left, but he would have no reason to look for him here. In all likelihood, Grady would have free reign with him until he decided to let him loose on Sunday or Monday, whenever he planned to do it.

When Grady finished bandaging Daniel’s wrists, he pulled out cuffs from the other end of the table. Daniel closed his eyes, not wanting to see the way Grady looked at him as he bound him tightly down to the surface. He opened them abruptly when Grady kissed his lips again on his way past.

Daniel now lay, mostly clothed but spread-eagled on the surface of this wretched table. His wrists ached in their chains. He squinted up at the ceiling, which -- he realized abruptly, was mirrored. He could see himself reflected in his horribly vulnerable position. There was blood on the hems his pant legs from his futile attempts to pull himself free of those cuffs, and, without craning his neck, he could see Grady walking down to the other end of the table, stopping briefly to pick up the dropped scissors as he went.

Daniel watched him look up towards the head of the table, then reach out with the scissors and start cutting up the leg of his pants. He wanted to close his eyes, not watch, but he couldn’t bring himself to keep them closed for any length of time. It wasn’t fear of being surprised, Grady’s exact location wasn’t hard to pinpoint by the smooth coolness of the scissors sliding against his skin.

To Daniel’s surprise, he carefully avoided the boxers, merely cutting the slacks off him and pulling the shreds away to drop into a trash container against the wall. That military neatness showing up, he guessed. Grady then, clearly enjoying the close contact and the shivers that were running through Daniel’s body, started cutting through the sides of Daniel’s undershirt, following that by cutting through the sleeves of his button-down shirt.

Daniel couldn’t help looking up at himself, wrists and ankles caught in silver cuffs, naked apart from his boxers. Where in the hell was the camera, he wondered, and did Grady come down here with popcorn to watch his films on that TV?

He shuddered.

“You know, it’s ironic, but I’ve almost never managed to be in the showers at the same time as you. I’ve never actually seen you naked.”

Daniel blinked. “I’m okay with that,” he said, both startled and alarmed by the thought that people might be scoping him out in the showers.

“It does make this moment more exciting,” Grady said, resting his hand on Daniel’s chest. “Do you shave this, or do you just not have much hair here?”

“I’m not . . . I don’t want . . .” Daniel shook his head. “Please stop.”

Fingers treading lightly, Grady ran his hand across Daniel’s chest, pausing to tweak the nipples till they were jutting painfully upwards. Daniel gritted his teeth and tried to think of something else. Physics and poetry, that’s what he’d left on his desk. Physics and poetry.

“I’m going to take a shower,” Grady announced suddenly. “And change.” Daniel looked up, turning his head to see Grady’s face. There was an odd grin there. “But not before . . .” He lifted the scissors again and carefully cut up the sides of Daniel’s boxers. He rested his hand on Daniel’s crotch, cupping his penis and balls, fondling gently, then he gently separated the fabric from Daniel’s soft flesh and pulled the boxers away leaving Daniel stripped completely bare.

Rigar had stripped Daniel, but there had been no looks, no gazing, no prurient interest. Daniel had wanted to hide himself then from the sheer humiliation of being unwillingly naked in the presence of men who were clothed. It had never occurred to him that sexuality was involved in the slightest till Rigar . . . and even then it hadn’t been sexual.

The lustful look on Grady’s face made Daniel’s stomach churn. He really didn’t understand what was causing this reaction, because he knew damned well that there was nothing particularly impressive about his body. His chest was hairless and otherwise normal, his legs were . . . legs . . . and his dick was ordinary. He could not fathom what made Grady’s eyes light up the way they were, or why there was a bulge in the front of his pants.

Grady walked up the table and bent to suckle briefly on one of Daniel’s nipples, then said, “I’ll be back soon, beautiful.”

Then he left Daniel alone, bound solidly to a table in a room without windows, naked and staring at himself.


	51. Chapter 51

The phone rang at quarter after ten. Expecting it to be Dr. Jackson, Tony got up and answered it. “Archeology office,” he said.

“Sciaparelli?” It was Colonel O’Neill’s voice. “Is Daniel there?”

“No, sir,” Tony said. “I expect him any time now, though.”

“Well, tell him my plane was delayed.”

“Of course. When will you be taking off?”

He could hear the irritation in the colonel’s voice. “They’re telling me sometime around eleven, but who knows. I’ll call if it’s going to be any later than that.”

“Yes, sir,” Tony said.

“Oh, and Sciaparelli, see to it that Daniel doesn’t work all day, okay? Make him walk around, get a little exercise.”

“I’ll try,” Tony replied, amused and wondering just how O’Neill expected him to make Daniel do anything.

“Good man. Thanks. You’re doing a great job.”

“Thank you, sir,” Tony said, flushing. How the man could say any such thing when Tony had barely been on the job a week, he didn’t know.

Hanging up the phone, he stretched muscles gone stiff from sitting. He was surprised that Dr. Jackson hadn’t shown up yet, but he supposed that it was possible he’d changed his mind. Tony stopped at Daniel’s desk and looked down at the work laid out there. The alien language was impenetrable to his eyes, but he squinted at Dr. Jackson’s notes curiously, wondering what the physics book was doing there. He shifted a page to see what was underneath and several papers slid to the floor. He bent and picked them up, shuffling them together embarrassedly. No doubt Dr. Jackson would be able to sort them out when he got in. He hoped.

As he put them down, he noticed the tape recorder sitting there and curiosity overcame him. He pressed the rewind button and let it go back to the beginning. Dr. Jackson must have been in a real talkative mood, because it took a while to rewind it.

He started off talking about some other project, one that Tony wandered over to his box and saw was waiting for work on Monday. Continuing to listen, he stretched some more. Sitting still for long periods of time always stiffened his bum leg up, and he’d been almost stationary for the past two hours while reading an utterly engrossing series of reports regarding a mission where -- as seemed to be a regular occurrence -- SG-1 had been captured, and everyone but Daniel had been returned through the stargate with falsified memories of Daniel dying. Only the pain in his leg had gotten him to his feet.

After a couple of moments, though, this began to feel like a guilty pleasure. He settled himself at the computer, powered it up and pulled up a template and, winding the tape back, he put it into the dictaphone and started transcribing the notes.

* * *

The room was air conditioned. That was one of the first things Daniel noticed. It wasn’t so cold that he was shivering, but it was chill. He didn’t know where to look. He wasn’t particularly eager to examine the tools that Grady had hanging from his walls. Spreader bars, and other things that Daniel didn’t know the names for. And straight up was a bird’s eye view of naked and bound Daniel Jackson, not something he was eager to contemplate either.

The room was utterly silent, which made Daniel suspect that it was somehow soundproofed. He lay there for long minutes, wondering just what Grady had planned. This table was wide. There was plenty of room for him to climb on and . . . Daniel closed his eyes and imagined the text he’d been translating, not wanting to examine the images in his imagination too closely. After all, he would likely have the reality soon enough.

When the door opened, he jumped at the sudden sound. He craned his neck, trying to see what was happening down at the other end of the room, but he really couldn’t lean up that far. Thumping his head back against the table, he gulped.

Major Grady walked into view in the mirror wearing a dark blue velour bathrobe. He took it off and hung it on a hook and Daniel froze, staring at the man’s naked body. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want any part of this. He wasn’t gay, he’d never been attracted to men. He shook his head abruptly. As if that mattered. He knew what it felt like to be raped by a woman. He doubted it made any difference in reality. The details of the event might differ, but . . .

Of course, he’d never eaten lunch with Hathor, nor attended an ordinary mission briefing with her. This was different. This was a man whom he should have been able to trust with his life and safety.

And now Major Grady stood less than ten feet away with a hard on and . . . God, was that a tube of lubricant? The major walked over to the table and deposited the lubricant by Daniel’s hip, briefly caressing the bare skin. Daniel wanted to yell out, tell him to stop, but he’d done that already to no avail. What was the point?

Grady walked over to the shelves that lined one of the shorter walls and pulled something off it, bringing it back to the table. Daniel’s mouth was drying out as the man moved purposefully around the room. He put the object down beside Daniel. It appeared to be a wedge of some kind.

“What’s going on?” Daniel asked, his voice trembling more than he liked.

Grady didn’t reply, he just went to stand beside Daniel’s left knee. He put one hand under the knee and ran the other down to his ankle, squeezed, then dropped the hand below the table and released the chain from whatever held it taut. Before Daniel could react, he lifted with the hand that was under the knee, sliding the chain around to the side of the table and clicking the cuff into place somehow. Daniel tried to shift as Grady released him, but found that his ankle was firmly held in place, his knee bent so that his heel was about eighteen inches from his ass. Daniel felt his breath start coming in short gasps, and he tried to control it. Grady carried out the same procedure on Daniel’s other leg, leaving him with his crotch open wide. Daniel brought his knees as close together as he could. An odd smile played around Grady’s lips, but he didn’t take any immediate action. Instead he took the wedge thing and placed it so that the narrow edge was touching Daniel’s butt. Giving it a solid shove, he slid it underneath Daniel’s ass, tilting his hips up.

“Grady?” Daniel asked, his voice trembling. The major smiled and stroked the top of Daniel’s thigh, but he still didn’t speak. Reaching under the table, he pulled out another of the straps that must be stored down there by the dozen. Slipping it around Daniel’s thigh, he tightened it suddenly, pulling his leg down and out.

Daniel closed his eyes. This couldn’t be happening. This had to stop. There was no way Grady could be doing this to him . . . but clearly that was wrong. And Jack was undoubtedly still flying somewhere, in no position to come to Daniel’s rescue. Neither Teal’c nor Sam had any reason to suspect that Daniel was in trouble, so despite the fact that they were undoubtedly in Colorado Springs, they were also undoubtedly working on projects of their own.

Grady strapped his other leg down and out of the way, leaving Daniel open wide. He’d felt vulnerable before, now he felt completely and utterly helpless. Grady hitched himself up on the table and knelt between Daniel’s legs, the erection plainly visible if Daniel craned his neck. The major picked up the tube of lubricant and squeezed a generous amount onto his hand.

Daniel shook his head, eyes wide. “Don’t do this,” he begged. “God, Grady, don’t do this.”

Grady grinned, seeming to find this evidence of Daniel’s profound objection to be a turn on. “You are about the sexiest man I’ve never known,” he said. Rubbing his hands together, as if to warm the stuff, he put one of his hands between the cheeks of Daniel’s ass. Daniel closed his eyes, trying to pretend this wasn’t happening. It felt both horribly familiar and terribly different, and an unbidden thought floated through his head. This was going to mean another damned anal examination by Janet.

Despite his attempts to stop them, tears began to flow down the sides of his face as Grady stuck a finger into his anus. The major moaned a little. “You’re tight,” he said, sounding appreciative. Daniel shook his head, clamping his jaw tightly shut. The tears continued to flow as, slowly, gradually, Grady began to stretch the orifice, sliding first one finger, then a second into him. Rigar’s intent had been to cause pain, apparently that wasn’t Grady’s desire. “You can take me, don’t you worry, Daniel.”

“I don’t want to take you, bastard!” Daniel growled.

Grady chuckled and kept up the motion. There was no pain, there was just a feeling of pressure, a sense of things stretching uncomfortably. He was forcing himself to breath as normally as possible, not wanting to hyperventilate with the stress and near-hysteria he was feeling.

The table creaked as Grady leaned over the top of Daniel, one hand still probing inside his captive’s body, the other supporting him as he shifted forward. Daniel’s eyes flew open at the first sign of movement and he stared up apprehensively as Grady leaned down and, closing his own eyes, licked the track of tears that ran down Daniel’s cheek.

Utterly humiliated, Daniel turned his head away, concentrating on the floral print wallpaper.

“God almighty, but you’re beautiful,” Grady said, brushing his lips against Daniel’s cheekbone. Daniel closed his eyes again, wishing himself far away. Grady continued to press feather light kisses down Daniel’s cheek, then nuzzled at his neck.

Daniel gasped as Grady slipped a third finger into his anus and grit his teeth against a growl. Everything he did seemed to turn the bastard on. Objecting, crying, holding still and ignoring him, what the hell was up with that?

The fingers were moving inside him, odd circular movements and Daniel bit his lip, trying to just cope with it and ride it out. Then, without warning, the major drew his hand away. Daniel opened his eyes to get an idea of what was happening, but he couldn’t see anything down there now. Grady’s back was all that was visible in the mirror, and with the major nuzzling and nipping at his neck and ear, he couldn’t peer down the length of his body either.

Alarmingly, while he couldn’t feel Grady doing anything to him down there, he could clearly sense movement on the table. Without warning, Grady leaned more completely forward, bringing his other hand up to rest on the table by Daniel’s head. Abruptly, Daniel could feel the tip of his tormentor’s erection pressing into him, shifting, as if seeking the right spot. Then, as he found it, there was a brief pause.

Daniel started shaking his head. “No, please, no,” he muttered. As a sensation of gentle but insistent pressure started, he lost control of his reaction and started trying desperately to shift out of range. That wasn’t physically possible, but reality wasn’t part of his panic. He began to buck and writhe, his hands clenching against the cuffs on his wrists.

“Hush, Daniel,” Grady said in his ear, his breath hot. “This will go easier if you relax.”

“I don’t _want_ to relax, damn you! Get off me!”

“I’m not going to stop,” Grady said softly, “and the more you fight, the more it’s going to hurt.”

“Fuck you!”

The major let out a sigh that ended in a moan as he began to press forward. The feeling of pressure increased, and the stretching, and it was bloody damned uncomfortable. He grit his teeth against a sharp edge of pain as the tip of the shaft penetrated him. Daniel stopped trying to get away, stopped moving altogether, feeling almost frozen in place as his body was slowly impaled on another man’s dick.

Grady was moaning and snuffling against Daniel’s neck, which made him shudder. He didn’t want the man’s sexual reactions thrust upon him like this. He wanted this to damned well stop and stop now, but there was nothing he could do.

The sharp pain was replaced almost immediately by aching discomfort as the major’s cock slid slowly into him. He wondered suddenly if Grady had bothered to use a condom. He somehow doubted it. There were brief moments of pain periodically as the cock stretched him further and further.

Eventually, he felt the touch of Grady’s balls as they connected with his ass. He shuddered and Grady stopped moving, just holding still down there, his cock filling Daniel in ways he never would have imagined. It was a huge, invasive feeling, and he hated it.

Grady started to nibble more enthusiastically again, biting and nipping the skin on Daniel’s neck, but never sucking too hard. No marks, at least no visible ones. He knew there were already a couple of places where Grady had left hickeys on his shoulder and upper chest already.

The major began to kiss up Daniel’s chin and then kissed him on the mouth, his tongue darting out to press against Daniel’s lips, his teeth nibbling on the lower lip as he sucked it into his mouth. Daniel turned his head away again, but Grady followed, pushing, pressing, trying to gain entry.

Daniel kept his mouth resolutely shut. He didn’t think he could keep himself from biting Grady’s tongue hard enough to draw blood if the bastard managed to stick it in his mouth, so it was better to avoid the problem altogether. If possible.

Grady let out a chuckle and drew back. Grinning slightly, he caught Daniel’s eye and said, “Bite me and I’ll shove a broom handle up your ass once I’m done with it.” His tone was conversational, almost friendly as he gave this chilling warning. Daniel blanched, but narrowed his eyes and glared at him, refusing to rise to the bait. Grin broadening, Grady reached out and pinched his nose shut. Daniel tried to pull away, but there was nowhere to go, and every movement shifted the cock that stretched his ass wide, making him quiver with disgust. Eventually, he had to open his mouth to breathe, and then Grady invaded, releasing the grip on his nose.

The threat was barely credible, nevertheless it was just credible enough to keep Daniel from using his teeth to end the kiss. He lay passive under the attack as Grady’s tongue explored and ravaged his mouth.

Daniel’s cry of alarm and outrage was muffled by Grady’s mouth when the bastard suddenly started moving, withdrawing his penis from Daniel’s ass. Then, with the tip barely inside, Grady abruptly reversed direction, thrusting smoothly and quickly into him.

It took all of Daniel’s self-control not to bite down and bite down hard on Grady’s tongue, not because he was trying to hurt the major, but because he wanted to grit his teeth against the onslaught of physical sensations and emotional misery that was overwhelming him.

Grady began to thrust rhythmically, a motion Daniel understood the dynamics of, but had never expected to experience in quite this way. He endured the dual assault on his mouth and his ass because there was nothing else he could do. Grady was grunting in time with his movements, the sound vibrating Daniel’s teeth and cheeks as the kiss continued. Kiss . . . it wasn’t the right word. There wasn’t a word for a forcible kiss. English damned well _needed_ a word for this, because he didn’t have one. Not in any language he could think of right now. How could he think rationally about something he didn’t have a word for?

Daniel couldn’t help trying to shift, trying to get away from the unwanted sensations in his body. He writhed and twisted, but there was nothing for him to do. As Grady’s ejaculation cut loose, he wondered miserably if he hadn’t somehow added to the man’s release by his attempt to escape.

Gradually, the kiss lessened in intensity and stopped. Grady’s flaccid cock slipped out and the man collapsed on top of him. He lay there, breathing hard, his weight pinning Daniel even more effectively in place and stirring a bit of claustrophobia in Daniel’s mind.

After what seemed an eternity, the major pushed himself up to a kneeling position again, resting his hands on the insides of Daniel’s thighs, fingers making lazy circles on the skin. Daniel shivered with abhorrence. “Lord, but you’re tight,” he said. “I thought -- I mean, Rigar was only two weeks ago.”

Daniel was breathing pretty hard too. He grit his teeth and glared up at Grady. “Rigar stuck two fingers inside me for all of a minute, if that!” he growled. “Before that he used his thumb. It was simply to cause pain and humiliation, nothing more. Nothing like this!”

Grady’s eyes widened. “But we were told you were raped.”

As always, the blunt word hit him like a slap, even harder than usual given recent events. Daniel took a deep breath. “Rape is the insertion, against the victim’s will, of a foreign object into the vagina or the anus,” he explained icily. “Rigar’s actions count, as do yours.”

Grady’s eyebrows went up. He leaned down towards Daniel’s mouth, his eyes fixed to those of his captive, making Daniel want to cringe away with the satiated expression in them. Or . . . was there still a touch of hunger in those eyes? Daniel found himself breathing very shallowly at that thought.

Lips hovering less than an inch above Daniel’s, Grady said, “That time was for me. The rest of this weekend is for you.”


	52. Chapter 52

Daniel’s gut clenched at the timeline specified. Not the whole weekend, he thought desperately. Jack would find him before the weekend was over. Daniel closed his eyes. Maybe even before the day was over. Please, before the day was over . . .

Daniel shook his head, horror and loathing and incredulity cascading through his mind at the proximity of this man. He could feel the man’s flaccid cock brushing against his lower belly and groin, sending shivers of aversion through him. There was something surreal about defining the word ‘rape’ to someone who had just raped him.

“None of this is for me,” he said firmly, but tears began to flow again as emotion overcame him, and he let out a stream of multi-lingual invective. Grady watched him with a little half smile, clearly getting a rush from the power he held over his captive. Daniel wanted to shove that smile down his throat. Grady leaned forward again, and Daniel tried to withdraw, to turn his head. “Leave me alone!” he protested bitterly. “I want --”

Grady’s mouth fastened over his, the other man’s tongue darting in to taste and tease and play. The taste of him, a combination of mint and essence of Grady, had gone unnoticed in the barrage of sensations during the rape, but now it filled Daniel’s mouth. The smell of sex and sweat permeated the air, and Daniel could feel the semen that Grady had jetted into him beginning to dribble out of his ass. It was a hideously sticky and ticklish feeling.

Overwhelmed suddenly by the wretchedness of it all, Daniel jerked fruitlessly at the cuffs on his wrists, causing pain in the injuries he’d given himself earlier. He grunted into Grady’s mouth, and the major chuckled his appreciation even as he continued the intrusive kiss. The bastard’s hands began to wander, caressing Daniel’s chest and upper arms, tickling his sides lightly. Daniel twitched involuntarily, and Grady ceased that for a moment, only to return and tickle again when Daniel wasn’t prepared. He twitched again, which seemed to amuse the bastard no end. It was infuriating to lie here feeling like a toy to be played with.

Previous attackers had been people with agendas. Hathor had wanted to reproduce and create larvae that would be suited to human hosts. Shyla -- well, there hadn’t been any actual sex there -- but her hesitant kisses and caresses had been an attempt to ensnare Daniel’s affections. The prisoner on Hadante who had pinned him to a wall and groped him roughly while trying to force a kiss had wanted nothing more than novelty and physical release.

Grady rubbed his thumbs across Daniel’s nipples, then started tweaking them and rolling them gently in his fingers. Daniel jerked, still trying to pull away despite the fact that he knew it was useless. Grady’s tongue was flirting with his, as if the idiot was attempting to draw him into joining in the kiss. Bastard. Daniel tried to take up his train of thought again. Rigar. Rigar hadn’t even wanted sex. He’d just wanted answers.

This was so totally different. All Grady wanted was sex, and he was turned on by Daniel’s resistance. Hathor had been amused by Daniel’s refusal to cooperate, and she had forced him to comply despite it. Shyla had been confused and tearful until the sarcophagus addiction had changed Daniel into someone she had to push away rather than pull close.

The kiss was becoming more intense, more bruising, as the major tried harder to force a response from Daniel. Grady actually expected Daniel to want this, to come to like being objectified as a plaything for another man. How often had he done this to men who had responded? How confused had those men been? Were there any women amongst Grady’s conquests?

These questions made Daniel’s head spin, and he wanted to get as far away from this serial rapist as possible. Without considering it, he tried to pull his wrists free yet again, and they set up a steady ache that failed to be sufficiently distracting to be useful.

Grady left off his thorough exploration of Daniel’s mouth and began to kiss down his neck to his chest, hands wandering lower, stroking Daniel’s abdominal muscles lightly, apparently enjoying the way they tensed at the unwanted touch.

Daniel went rigid as Grady’s teeth found his left nipple. The major bit lightly, then licked around the aureole. Daniel gulped back a string of curses that would do nothing but amuse the jackass. When Grady spoke, his lips were still touching -- and tickling -- Daniel’s nipple, making his skin crawl with revulsion. “I’m going to make you cum so hard that you won’t know what hit you.” The major’s voice was husky, and he followed the words with another nip on the sensitive skin he’d been tormenting.

Flinching despite his best efforts, Daniel shook his head fervently. “You’re dreaming.” This was completely beyond belief . . . Grady had already gotten off once. How long was the wretch going to keep this insanity up?

Grady chuckled with his teeth still on Daniel’s nipple, passing the vibration across. Daniel shuddered. “We’ll just see about that, won’t we?” he said, licking the nub and blowing on it.

A moment later, one of Grady’s hands found Daniel’s flaccid penis. Daniel let out a surprised shout at the abrupt contact, but Grady murmured contentedly as he wrapped his hand around the limp member. The major spoke again, his mouth still brushing against Daniel’s chest as he kissed across to the right nipple. “If I’d realized at the start what a virgin you are,” he said, “I would have been a bit softer with you at the beginning.”

“Since that means you would have raped me anyway, that’s no consolation,” Daniel snarled. His words broke off with a squeak as the major began to pull gently on his cock. “No! Grady! God damn it!”

“Let’s see if I can’t make up for my mistake,” Grady said, continuing to stroke Daniel’s cock in an even rhythm, stirring a reaction that Daniel tried to suppress.

“I don’t want you to do this,” he said desperately.

“Begging suits you, beautiful,” Grady said, raising up so he could gaze into Daniel’s face. “I love it when your eyelashes do that little flutter.”

What the -- what could he possibly -- what the hell did he mean? Daniel shook his head. It didn’t matter. He had other, more pressing concerns.

The male body can only take so much stimulation of certain kinds before it is compelled to respond despite the mind’s objections. Intellectually, Daniel knew that. He’d told himself so repeatedly after Hathor, but she’d had the added benefit of irresistible pheromones, and he’d known that, too. This was . . . different. Horrible. The reactions he’d been trying to repress were building, and he felt betrayed as his dick began to respond to Grady’s gentle, insistent attentions.

Grady chuckled low in his throat, a self-satisfied smirk on his face as the all too evident results of his activities began to fill his hand.

Daniel glared up at him. “Not much of an achievement,” he ground out contemptuously. “The seam of my jeans can get that much reaction without half trying.”

Grady’s smirk narrowed slightly and he squeezed suddenly. Daniel felt his eyes widen and he grunted with surprise, both at the action and the incredible sensation it caused. As Grady released the pressure, Daniel felt his cock expand and he closed his eyes, trying to will the reaction away.

The major nipped playfully at his lower lip. “Does it do that for your jeans?” he asked tauntingly, squeezing yet again. Daniel’s eyes flew open and he grit his teeth. “Well, Daniel?”

Temper fraying badly, Daniel opened his mouth to snarl a foul epithet, but Grady took full advantage of the situation, plunging his tongue aggressively into Daniel’s mouth. Only the vision of a broomstick in his mind’s eye stopped him from biting down hard on that tongue. He forced himself to remain passive under the assault. He had to find something else to think --

Abruptly, Grady started sucking extremely hard, and Daniel’s tongue was literally dragged into the other man’s mouth. The major nibbled and teased for as long as he could, then drew back, grinning at Daniel’s outraged glare. He bit and sucked on Daniel’s lower lip, then returned to kissing down Daniel’s chest, still rhythmically squeezing Daniel’s penis, encouraging the unwanted erection to grow. Daniel reminded himself again that this was beyond his control, that there was nothing he could do to prevent that purely physiological response. It didn’t help.

When Grady shifted his mouth down below Daniel’s waist, he felt his breath coming short again. “Grady?” he asked, voice cracking.

The major’s tongue slipped briefly into Daniel’s bellybutton, and he spasmed with surprise at the sensation. Grady chuckled and kept it up for a moment, thrusting his tongue repeatedly into Daniel’s navel.

As his cock reacted more strongly to the gentle squeezing and pulling Grady applied to it, other parts of Daniel’s body were growing more sensitive. His nipples ached and the thrusting of the major’s tongue was starting to call up a sense of poisoned pleasure that Daniel fought against tooth and nail. If Grady sensed it, he would leap upon it as proof that he was right, that Daniel secretly wanted this.

Daniel’s erection was getting hard and beginning to pulse with need as Grady continued to work on it. Striving to keep his breathing under control, Daniel found that all he could think about was the intense physical reaction he was having. He had to regain control of himself, there had to be some way . . .

Grady nipped the skin above Daniel’s navel and then removed his hand from Daniel’s erect cock. A moment later, Daniel felt the major start nuzzling in the pubic hair at the base of the shaft. Realizing for certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, just what was about to happen, Daniel began to buck wildly. He yanked violently against the cuffs on his wrists, and tried desperately to close his knees, to block access to his groin, but the restraints held firm.

Daniel’s frenzied efforts to get loose made Grady sit up and gaze down appreciatively at him. Daniel knew the movements were only turning the major on, but he had lost control over himself. In the mirror on the ceiling he could see his own cock straining upwards, which he found deeply disturbing. Almost more distressing, though, was the fact that Grady’s cock was nearly half-erect again already.

As Daniel struggled, his penis bobbed back and forth ludicrously. Grady caught it in his hand, stilling it, then bent to lick the underside of the shaft. Instantly, a sense of gratification shot through Daniel, and he closed his eyes, trying to force the sensations away. Holding his balls, Grady teased the length of Daniel’s cock with tongue and teeth, flooding the bound man with a torrent of pleasure that was both unwanted and vile.

Daniel could hear and feel Grady’s moans of ecstasy. The major’s hands stroked the insides and backs of Daniel’s thighs as he tormented Daniel’s cock with his mouth. Unwilling desire grew to a boiling point till all Daniel could feel was a desperate craving for release, underlaid by a simmering fury that had him trembling with its intensity.

When Grady took the length of him into his mouth, Daniel cried out involuntarily, pulling again on the wrist restraints even as his hips arched upwards into Grady’s hot suction.

The aching need to finish what had been started was all that drove his body, but tears of anger, humiliation and grief poured forth as his flesh betrayed him finally, spurts of semen flowing into Grady’s greedily sucking mouth. When the orgasm was over he lay there, shaking with reaction and rage.

A hoarse cry was ripped from his throat as Grady suddenly rammed his cock into Daniel’s ass all the way to the hilt. The major’s balls slapped Daniel’s ass cheeks once, and then again as the bastard started to thrust.

“Stop!” Daniel cried desperately. “Please . . .”

Grady just kept slamming away into him, growling his own pleasure. He bent over Daniel and bit at his shoulders and chest feverishly. Then he shifted to biting at Daniel’s lips. “Open up, slut!”

Daniel grit his teeth, trying hard not to scream out his overwhelming fury. Grady stopped thrusting abruptly and ground against him. Daniel groaned, mouth closed, glaring up at the major who was grinning down at him, eyes lit with unholy glee.

“Open your mouth, Daniel, you know you like this.”

Daniel closed his eyes against that expression. Refutation wasn’t an option, because any verbal protest would involve opening his mouth, thus rendering the effort useless. Tears of frustration squeezed out between his eyelashes, and then Grady raised a hand and pressed his nostrils shut again. Feeling degraded by the juvenile yet effective tactic, Daniel opened his mouth.

He tried to distance himself from what has happening to him. Reaching deep within himself, he tried to find some way to pull his mind away from this abject humiliation. Tried and failed. He couldn’t ignore it as Grady began thrusting again, he couldn’t disregard the questing, probing tongue in his mouth, nor could he place any distance between himself and the hot spurts of semen that shot into him as Grady arched back and howled.

A moment later, Grady collapsed across him again. It was pure hell having the man who had raped him draping himself over the top of his body. Daniel wanted to regain control of his breathing, but with the major’s weight holding him down, he couldn’t manage it.

After what seemed like a long time, Grady slid backwards off the table. He walked over to the kitchenette and washed his hands. With the major at a distance, Daniel was able to force his labored breathing back under control. All his joints ached from the pressures he’d placed on them trying to get free, and his wrists in particular were in agony. He peered upwards and saw that red was staining the white bandages that Grady had wrapped around his wrists. He must have broken the scabs open in his struggles.

The major returned to the table and placed his hand, dry but still cold from the water, on Daniel’s chest, stroking the right nipple lightly. Daniel cringed away. “You are one hell of a lay, Daniel Jackson,” Grady said, grinning down at him. “We could be great together.”

Daniel just closed his eyes and tried to ignore him.

“It’s getting on towards lunchtime,” Grady said. “I’ll bet you’re starving.”

“Not particularly,” Daniel replied. In fact, food sounded nauseating despite his lack of breakfast.

“Well, I am,” the major said. He bent and brushed his lips against Daniel’s. “Open up, or do I have to get rough with you again?”

Reluctantly, but seeing no point in resisting at the moment, Daniel allowed the bastard entrance into his mouth for a long, lingering kiss.

Grady drew away, disappointment in his eyes. “You’re going to take a bit more effort than I anticipated,” he said softly. Daniel let out a contemptuous huff of breath and turned his head away. “But in the meantime, let’s get you cleaned up.” And, bizarrely, he brought a tub of warm water over to the table and began to give Daniel a very intimate sponge bath, wiping up the table as well where things had spread a bit. He then dried Daniel off and removed the wedge from under his hips, replacing it with a folded towel.

Swiftly, with the ease of long practice, he returned Daniel’s legs to the spread-eagle position and then paused, staring at Daniel’s wrists. “You’ve done it again,” he said chidingly. “You’re bleeding.”

Daniel didn’t reply. He just lay still while Grady went and fetched the bandages. Evidently all too aware of Daniel’s mood, Grady gave him no chance to strike out when he released the wrist cuffs to clean and rebandage the rope lacerations on Daniel’s wrists. He left Daniel’s chains somewhat loose and went upstairs to clean himself up and fix lunch.

Daniel lay still in the basement as the door above clicked shut. What the hell was Grady going to do if he realized that there was no way in hell he was ever getting away with it this time? Because Daniel knew himself, knew he didn’t have it in him to play the defeated victim, not even to persuade Grady to let him go.

There was now enough give in the chains for Daniel to roll onto his side. He curled up as tightly as he could and tried to think of ways he could escape.


	53. Chapter 53

It took nearly a forty minutes to transcribe the data at the beginning of the tape before Tony reached the stuff he was really interested in. Daniel started muttering about physics and metaphors, and Tony gradually realized that Daniel thought the document he was translating described physics largely by use of metaphorical language. He blinked. As if physics wasn’t hard enough to understand without adding another layer of meaning.

He kept transcribing, though, and listening with interest. After about another forty minutes there was a brief pause on the tape and then he heard Daniel speak again.

“Hello to you, too, Jack,” the archeologist said. “Did you win your bet tonight?” There was a pause, and then Daniel said, “Chasing my tail through a translation of some kind of physics text that appears to have been written by a poet. How did the hearings go today?”

Tony felt like an intruder, but he figured that there would probably be more work notes after the conversation with O’Neill. He fast-forwarded. When he hit play again, he heard a voice that wasn’t Daniel, a voice that sounded vaguely offensive. “. . . some kind of innocent victim.”

Tony blinked and kept listening. “Look, Major Grady,” Daniel said, “I’ve got work to do. If there’s nothing I can do for you, maybe you should be heading home.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t talk to me that way, Dr. Jackson,” Grady said in return, sounding definitely hostile. There was a sound that was almost like a scuffle. Tony stopped the tape and wound it back. He wanted to listen to this from the start.

Anger built as he listened to Grady’s words and when he’d heard it all, including the puttering mutters Daniel made as he got himself together to leave immediately afterwards, he rewound again and began typing. O’Neill would need to include a transcription in the man’s disciplinary file. Assuming that Daniel wanted it reported . . .

* * *

Jack put the case to Hammond over lunch on the plane. Daniel was getting much better. Sure, he still had nightmares, but a mission like the one they had planned to M3T-33H wasn’t likely to be troublesome in that regard. They weren’t even planning to stay overnight.

“Jack, it isn’t that I don’t think Dr. Jackson could handle himself on a mission if he needed to,” Hammond said. “I just think that if he’s still having issues then he needs to focus most of his attention on dealing with them rather than exploring new cultures. There’s no off time on a mission, you know that, Jack.”

Jack nodded. “I do, sir, but I’m not sure how well Daniel understands your reasoning. Have you put it to him like that?”

“No,” Hammond said thoughtfully. “No, I haven’t. Maybe I’ll have a little chat with him on Monday.”

“Might not be a bad idea,” Jack said. “On another note, Lt. Sciaparelli seems to be working out very well.”

“I ran into him in the commissary the other day. He seems a very well spoken young man, very polite. He and Dr. Jackson are getting on well?”

“Very well,” Jack said, smiling. “He even understands what Daniel’s saying sometimes, which is impressive of its own right.”

Hammond rolled his eyes. “Yes, colonel, I can see that.” An airman came and picked up the detritus from their meal and Hammond settled back in his seat, clearly intending to take a nap. Jack picked up a book and opened it, leaning back to read.

* * *

All of the plans Daniel could come up with involved getting off this table. His eyes were beginning to ache and burn from the tears he’d shed. Scrubbing at them angrily, he started testing the limits of the chains. He could just about sit up, but his hands would only reach as far as his hips with his legs pulled out straight and spread apart pretty widely.

It felt neither comfortable nor secure, but it gave him an idea. Maybe, if he slid all the way to the head of the table he could reach underneath with his hands and get some more slack on the chains. He wasn’t sure what that would really gain him, but it was better than lying here waiting passively for Grady to come back. Wrapping his hands around the chains, he pulled himself upwards and started reaching around behind him. It was distinctly awkward, but he discovered one thing. The chains on both wrist cuffs were attached centrally, so theoretically, they could cross each other without getting hung up.

Twisting, he managed to get his arms shifted so that the chains were on the opposite sides of the table and he was reaching around in a more natural way, his chest pressed down to the table, his legs very close together as he twisted himself almost in half.

He had just found the mechanism that pulled the chains taut and was feeling it with his fingers to work out its function when he heard the door open. He tried, but there was no real way for him to get himself out of that position in time not to be seen. There wasn’t a position available that he wanted to be in with Grady in the room, but he really didn’t want to be caught in the act of trying, however ineffectually, to escape.

He knew instantly when Grady saw him from the choked off laugh. “What kind of a tangle have you gotten yourself into, Daniel?” the major asked, sounding infuriatingly amused. “Not that it’s not an attractive tangle, mind you.”

Daniel shuddered. He heard a ceramic sound as Grady put something down on the counter of the kitchenette, but he couldn’t really turn his head to see what the man was doing. He heard water running as he continued to try and sort himself out.

The water stopped, and he couldn’t hear anything for a moment, then Grady’s hand landed on his hip. Daniel froze, then started to try and pull away. The bastard could move so incredibly silently . . .

“No, don’t move, stay right where you are,” Grady said, and he sponged off Daniel’s ass where there were remnants of the earlier activities. Grateful as he was not to be sitting in filth, Daniel shuddered at the other man’s touch.

After a moment, Grady took the towel that he’d left on the table and moved away again. There was a vague thumping sound and Daniel craned his neck to see Grady shutting some kind of hatch -- probably a laundry pass through of some kind. The major was once more dressed in the blue bathrobe.

Daniel almost had his arms untangled, and he shifted them, trying to pull himself straight again. A sharp swat on his ass made him arch with surprise and, turning his head, he glared up at the major. “I told you not to move, slut. You need to learn to obey.”

“Obedience isn’t one of my strong points,” Daniel said. “And stop calling me that.”

Grady ignored his words as if he hadn’t spoken. “You should wear tighter fitting clothing,” he said, running his hand up Daniel’s back. “You’re so nicely muscled and it doesn’t show at all.”

“Maybe I don’t want it to,” Daniel said.

“Well, I want to see it, and I want other people to see it, so we’ll have to work something out.” Grady’s hands were still stroking along Daniel’s back, making the skin crawl. “I’ll buy you some nice clingy shirts, maybe, and we’ll see how it goes.”

Daniel shook his head. Next thing, the bastard would be suggesting they move in together. He clamped his jaw shut on words that would only get him in trouble. The last thing he needed to do was convince Grady that there was nothing he could ever do that would persuade Daniel to go along with this peacefully. That would guarantee he was given no chances to escape.

“I need to use the restroom,” he said.

Grady’s hands stilled then ran up Daniel’s back to his shoulders. “Of course,” he said. Kissing Daniel’s shoulder, he added, “I’ll have to go upstairs briefly, to get the key.” He walked away, stroking down the length of Daniel’s body as he went.

While he was gone, Daniel managed to get himself back to a flat position again, one leg draped over the other in an attempt to conceal himself, despite the futility of hiding what had already been seen . . . and tasted.

There was a steaming bowl on the countertop, presumably the lunch Grady had gone to fix. Daniel wondered what it was and contemplated his options. Food sounded disgusting, but that might be as much because Daniel had skipped breakfast as because of the stress he was under. Jack would tell him to eat and keep his strength up.

Had Jack’s plane landed yet? Where was he? What would he think when he got Daniel’s note but found that the archeologist wasn’t at the mountain? Daniel took a deep breath as he started to hyperventilate again.

The major returned in a few moments with a key and put it down on the countertop next to the bowl of food. Then he walked across to the wall of tools, which he deposited on the table, pulling one of them out from the others. It appeared to be a wide leather belt. “Budge up,” Grady said, nodding at Daniel’s midsection. Daniel glared at him suspiciously, and Grady cocked an ironic eyebrow at him. “Look, Daniel, I’m not stupid. You knocked me silly earlier. I’m not letting you up with no restraints.”

Daniel shifted upwards so that Grady could slip the belt underneath him, but he couldn’t help wondering how Grady planned to eventually release a man he expected to attack him. It was just another sign of how deluded the man was. He really thought that after this was over, Daniel would go back to his normal life without complaint. And come back here happily if Grady asked, no doubt.

There was a metal ring in the front of the belt that had a chain through it, a manacle on each end. Grady hooked the left side manacle on something under the table, then went and got the key. He released Daniel’s right arm and brought it down to the manacle on the belt and forced it into the metal circle. “Be careful, now, don’t jerk too hard. You don’t want to break those open again.”

Daniel glared at him. Grady just grinned and unlocked the left cuff. Daniel let him put the second cuff of the waist chain around his wrist, and watched while he pulled the chain almost all the way through the ring on one side, securing it with a small padlock through the links. Daniel reminded himself that there were people who did this sort of thing willingly for fun. Those who did, on both sides of the locks, would be appalled by what Grady was doing to him. It broke all the rules.

Clearly, however, the major was still concerned that Daniel might try to take advantage of any laxness in his bonds to attack him again.

Grady moved down to Daniel’s feet with the other object he’d pulled down off the wall. This was pretty simple, just a pair of cuffs with an eighteen inch long chain between them. He clicked them around Daniel’s ankles, then unlocked the chains that bound him to the table.

“All right, let’s get you up.”

The drop to the ground was slightly further than Daniel had expected, and he stumbled a little on the soft carpet. Grady caught him, putting an arm around his shoulders. As soon as he had his feet under him again, Daniel pulled away. “Where’s the restroom?” he asked.

Grady rested his hand on Daniel’s back between his shoulder blades. “Is this what’s left of the burns, this pink skin?”

Daniel shuddered. “Where’s the restroom?” he demanded.

“I didn’t have any idea they were so large. I’d heard you were burned, but I didn’t think it was --”

“Were you going to let me go to the bathroom or not?” Daniel asked impatiently.

“Of course.” Grady’s hand dropped to briefly fondle Daniel’s ass.

Daniel shot forward, stumbling again and thumping his waist against the table. “Stop it!”

“Don’t start like that,” Grady said softly, catching Daniel around the waist and pulling him close in something that resembled a hug. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

Daniel closed his eyes and started to count to ten. When he was done, he started over again, in Abydonian. By the time he reached seven in Aramaic, Grady let go and led him to a door in the side wall. Opening the door, he reached around Daniel, stroked his belly, then unlocked the padlock holding his hands confined. Now he had about two and a half feet of play on the chain between his hands. He could extend one hand that far from the ring in the middle of his waist, or he could extend both hands about half that far.

Grady goosed his ass, causing him to jump forward. “Five minutes,” he said and shut the door.


	54. Chapter 54

Daniel walked into the bathroom to find it walled in mirrors.  It was clearly designed with sexual activity in mind.  Trying to ignore the myriad reflections of himself on every wall, he used the toilet.  He flushed and walked over to wash his hands.  Before he was even finished, Grady came into the room.  “Hey, I’m using the bathroom!” he protested, but Grady walked right up behind him and slid his arms around Daniel from behind, slipping in under his arms.  Daniel grabbed at his hands and tried to pry them away, but Grady’s just twisted his hands and grabbed Daniel’s wrists, stopping him with a gentle yet solid grasp.  He was just a little taller than Jack, and a bit beefier, not nearly as large as Teal’c, but his grip was strong enough that without better leverage, Daniel wasn’t going to be able to break it.

Getting hurt worse now would not help him escape later if the opportunity presented itself.  Daniel closed his eyes, trying desperately to keep calm.  Jack would find him, and he’d bring Teal’c.  Teal’c would rip Grady limb from limb.  At the moment, that seemed very appealing.

The major gripped the chains that bound Daniel’s wrists very close to the cuffs in one hand, catching hold of the chain at Daniel’s waist with the other.  Pulling the one out reeled the others in, and he locked the chain closely again with the padlock.  Once Daniel’s hands were restrained, Grady ran his hand to the back of Daniel’s neck and into his hair, pushing his head down, nibbling and licking eagerly for several moments before releasing his head.

Then the major whipped something black of his pocket.  “This will be such fun,” he murmured in Daniel’s ear.  “I love to watch.”

“I’d never have guessed,” Daniel groused.  Even the wall with the sink wasn’t devoid of mirrors.  The faucet came out of the wall in the middle of a panel of glass, and the sink itself was a gleaming pillar of stainless steel.

Grady shook the black thing out, revealing it to be a wide strip of leather with rings spaced evenly around it and buckles on the ends.  Rather like a man holding a necklace out for his wife, he spread it in front of Daniel’s face, then wrapped it around his neck.

“No, stop.  Grady, I don’t -- Grady, stop!”

Ignoring him, Grady reached down and unhooked one of the cuffs from the end of the chain, leaving the other immobilized at his waist.  He had to fight Daniel to raise his arm up, but there was no doubt which man was stronger.  A slip ring on the cuff hooked easily to the collar leaving Daniel with his wrist attached to the side of his neck, palm in, elbow splayed wide.

Working quickly and grinning the whole time, Grady did the same with the other wrist and removed the belt, tossing it aside in the first example of untidiness he’d shown thus far.

With Daniel’s hands and arms thus out of the way, Grady began to run his hands up and down Daniel’s chest and belly, sucking on his ear as he did so -- and watching.

Daniel closed his eyes.  He didn’t want to see, but Grady’s teeth bit into his ear a little more sharply and the man murmured, “Keep your eyes open, sweet cheeks.”

“Bastard!” Daniel growled.

“You should see how beautiful you are,” Grady murmured.  “Here.”  He pulled Daniel gently sideways till there was an unobstructed view of a floor to ceiling mirror panel.  “Look at yourself.  You’re stunning.  Smooth hairless chest with nice muscles and tiny nipples like little buds.”  He stroked the body parts as he named them, and Daniel twitched with revulsion.  “Impressive abdominal musculature, unexpectedly impressive,” he said, caressing the skin.  “That thatch of golden curls surrounding a perfect cock.”  Daniel gritted his teeth and closed his eyes again as Grady took his flaccid penis into his hand for a gentle squeeze that shot sensation through his balls.

Another nip on Daniel’s ear made his eyes flip open.  “Look at yourself, beautiful,” Grady said firmly, licking the spot he’d just bitten.

Daniel looked at his face, squinting his eyes slightly to see without his glasses.  His jaw was set in a profoundly angry expression.  How Grady could find that a turn on was beyond him.  His eyes flicked sideways and met Grady’s in the mirror, though, and there was lust there, and fascination, and Daniel turned his head to look away.

Grady brought his hands up on either side of Daniel’s head and turned it back again so that he was facing front.  “Don’t you see it?”

Daniel swallowed a lump of angry words.  He didn’t think Grady wanted to know what he saw, and he wasn’t able to dissimulate and play along.  What did the major want, after all?  Was Daniel supposed to blush and look virginal, was he supposed to get cocky and flirt?  He didn’t have the foggiest clue what to give the man, even if he could manage the acting.

“You’re beautiful,” Grady murmured again, stroking his hands down Daniel’s sides to settle one on his waist and grip Daniel’s cock lightly with the other.  He smiled, and Daniel shuddered.  “I think we’ll make this the cover of the DVD, with the faces smudged of course.”

Daniel blinked, his eyes focusing again on the image in the mirror.  “You’re kidding, right?” he asked, meeting Grady’s eyes.

“What do you think pays for all this?” Grady asked, nipping his earlobe.  “There are cameras all over down here, making digital recordings, with a secured live feed to a friend of mine who does the edits.”

“No!” Daniel whispered, horrified.  “God, no!  Tell me you’re lying.”

Grady was grinning broadly.  “I’ve already seen the teaser he’s put together from this morning.  Made me hot all over again.”

“No!”  The word was barely voiced, and Grady laughed softly at Daniel’s distress.  He pulled away, releasing Daniel briefly while he removed his bathrobe to reveal his already bulging cock.

Daniel whirled around, fighting to keep his balance despite the way his hand were restrained.  “Grady, stop this now!” he yelled, his voice breaking.  “Are you saying that someone is watching us right now?”

Grady tossed the robe on top of the belt.  “He could be,” he said carelessly.  “He could just as easily be editing the film the teaser’s for.”

Daniel’s mouth dried up and he started shaking his head.  He felt so incredibly trapped.  Trapped by the chains and straps that bound him, trapped by the images reflected at him and the ones supposedly being captured by computers, trapped by the lustful eyes of the man opposite him.  “Film?” he repeated disbelievingly.

“You’d be surprised what people will pay for this stuff on the internet,” Grady said, walking towards him.  Daniel was still shaking his head.  Cameras?  It couldn’t be true, could it?  He took a step back away from the bastard and smacked into the cold glass behind him.

Furious, not sure what to believe, Daniel started to strike out with his elbows, but Grady restrained him easily, pressing him back against the wall and bending in to nip at Daniel’s lips.

Daniel turned away, refusing to open his mouth and Grady started moving downwards, speaking as he kissed and bit and licked his way down Daniel’s chest and belly.  “You might want to give it some thought, Daniel.  Which is worse, letting me give you a little kiss or being filmed having a broomstick shoved up your beautiful ass?  People would pay well for that, let me tell you.”

“Son of a --” Daniel snarled.  “You can’t be serious!  There’s no way.  You can’t be seen doing this, no matter how secretive --”

Grady bit into the skin above Daniel’s belly button with a bit more force than usual, silencing him.  “Pay attention,” he said chidingly, looking up at Daniel from where he was kneeling on the floor, his hands on Daniel’s hips, pressing him back against the wall. “I told you, the faces are fuzzed.  But . . .”  He bent in and sucked Daniel’s cock into his mouth and toyed with it for a moment before letting it slip out again.  Daniel’s head and the back of his hands hit the wall as he jerked backwards with nowhere to go.  Grady tugged on Daniel’s pubic hair to make him look down again.  Their eyes met and this time there was no amusement, just an intensely serious expression.  “I can see it’s going to take a lot of work to let the slut in you free, but there are some things you need to consider.”  Daniel gulped, gazing down at the bastard who now had a hand cupping his balls, gently squeezing them.  “The film of our first encounter is being edited as we speak, and the teaser has already gone out to our regular customers.”

“What?”  Daniel’s whole body was trembling with sheer fury.  He made to pull away, but Grady’s hand tightened on his balls, effectively immobilizing him.  He grit his teeth as tears began to course down his cheeks, both from the pain in his testicles and the horrifying notion that there were people out there, right now, watching him be abused and getting off on it.

“It really is a shame we can’t show your face.  Those tears are hot as can be.”

“You unmitigated bastard!” Daniel snarled, following up with a selection of epithets so vile that it was probably fortunate that Grady couldn’t understand him, and, despite efforts to stop them, the tears continued unabated.  The major just kept fingering Daniel’s balls, which had a predictable effect on his dick.  The sensations from his treacherous body were disturbing, but Grady’s words riveted his attention when he spoke again.

“See, this is how it works.  Glen edits a film together from the raw footage, and he’s good, let me tell you.  He’s won awards with our stuff.”  Daniel closed his eyes, trying to pretend that this was a line of bullshit, but the more Grady kept going, the harder that was to believe.  “We sell it on the internet and ship it around the world via digital means and regular mail.  The faces are digitally concealed, but there are always two versions of the finished film.  One for us and a few select friends, one that we sell.”  He paused as if to make sure that Daniel was following him.  “It would be but a moment’s work to send the unedited version out to half the world.”

Daniel blanched as the gist of the threat Grady implied came home to him.

Grady smiled.  “Smart and gorgeous.  Yes, if you ‘report me’ as you so memorably threatened earlier, Glen will send out the unedited version of the film to a slightly expanded list of recipients, to include people like General Hammond, perhaps, or members of your former academic community.”

There weren’t words big enough to express Daniel’s rage and desperation.  The emotional reaction had dampened the physical, and his cock was now limp again.  Grady released his balls, preparing to commit some other outrage, but Daniel jerked himself out of the bastard’s grasp and tried to knee Grady in the face.

The major was too fast for him, backing away quickly to avoid the attack, then coming in close to press the length of his body against Daniel’s, his erect cock jabbing into Daniel’s lower abdomen.  As Grady’s face lowered towards his, Daniel started to turn his head away, but a whisper of “broom handle” stopped him.  Flushing with shame at his cowardice, Daniel let the other man into his mouth, flinching and twitching at the feel of Grady’s cock against his body.

Grady pulled back just far enough that he could speak, his lips grazing Daniel’s as they moved.  “Don’t fight me, beautiful, you can’t win.”  He took a sudden step backwards and spun Daniel around, then, grabbing Daniel’s hips, tugged him backwards.

Thrown off balance by the abruptness of the change, Daniel looked down to see Grady’s foot skillfully sliding the chain between Daniel’s ankles into a slip ring anchored to the floor.  A chill threaded through his gut, which was ludicrous.  He couldn’t be much more thoroughly trapped than he already was.  Then Grady shifted his own foot further to the left and Daniel watched disbelievingly as he tucked the chain into another slip ring about a foot away from the first.

As he began to hyperventilate, Daniel took a deep breath to try and control himself.  Grady kissed the top of his left shoulder.  “It’s okay, Daniel, I would never hurt you.”

He let out a sharp, incredulous bark of laughter, then tamped down hard on incipient hysteria.  Grady took a step back from him and reached up to a stainless steel lever that hid nicely between two panes of glass.  He pulled on it and a chain dropped six inches down from the ceiling.  Daniel was watching in the mirror across from him as the major reached up and tugged down it.  There was a ratcheting sound above them, and the chain grew longer.  Grady took hold of the collar on Daniel’s neck and Daniel panicked.  He yanked the collar out of Grady’s grip and launched himself forward, paying limited attention to the realities of the situation.  He landed hard on his knees and Grady caught him with an arm around his chest as he started to fall face first into the mirror on the wall.

“Damn it, Daniel!” Grady growled, sounding almost scared.  Daniel could understand why.  It might be a little difficult to explain a decapitated archeologist in your basement.  “You’ve got to stop doing things like that.  Accept that you’re here, that there’s nothing you can do about it, and try to let go a little.”

“How about you let go a little?” Daniel replied, his voice harsh with the effort to keep his emotions under control.  “How about a lot?”

Pulling a struggling, writhing Daniel to his feet, Grady said, “Your resistance just makes things more interesting.”

“Is there anything I could do that would be _less_ interesting?” Daniel demanded.

Grady just laughed and hooked the chain from the ceiling into one of the d-rings on the collar around Daniel’s neck.  Reaching up, he pulled on the lever and shortened it a smidge so that Daniel had to stand upright to avoid being choked.  Then he did something that seemed to lock the chain in place and stepped back to admire his handiwork.

Daniel closed his eyes.  “I do not understand how you can find this attractive,” he said.  “I don’t want to be here, and you damned well know it.”

“Daniel, you want this,” Grady said.  “You just haven’t admitted it to yourself yet.”

“Self-serving bullshit,” Daniel replied, glaring up at the man who was now standing just to the side of him.

“You’ve needed taking in hand for years, you just haven’t had anyone around you with the perception to recognize it.”

“For ‘perception’ substitute ‘delusion’ and you’re a step closer.”

“No one could possibly get into so many dangerous sexual situations as you do without subconsciously seeking them out,” Grady said patiently, stroking the underside of Daniel’s near arm.  “You need a safe place to express that need for sexual danger, and that’s what this is.”

“You really do have your head so far up your ass that it’s not coming out again, don’t you?”

Grady laughed and slapped Daniel’s ass, but this wasn’t a friendly laugh.  “Don’t push me, Daniel,” he said softly.  “You don’t want me to get mean.”

Daniel blinked and looked straight ahead.  Taking a deep breath, he said, “No.  No, I don’t want that.”

“Good boy,” Grady replied, reaching out and stroking the place he’d slapped, as if to make up for the sting with gentleness.  “We’ll train you up right.”

Daniel closed his eyes, as if darkness would lend him escape.  All it really did, though, was to give Grady the opportunity to move about him unseen.  He opened his eyes again.  This could be worse.  He could have no hope of rescue, but Daniel was certain that sooner or later, preferably before the day was over, someone would figure out that Daniel Jackson was missing and come find him.

The question was, would they have any idea where to look?


	55. Chapter 55

This morbid thought was interrupted by Grady wrapping an arm around Daniel from behind.  One hand went straight for his cock, the other fastened onto his left nipple.  He looked at the mirror and saw what anyone watching this theoretical recording would see, and remained baffled by the appeal.  Of course, they only had to edit out all the sounds of Daniel’s arguments, any serious-looking escape attempts, and it could look like he was just playing along with the game.

Grady’s cock was pressing into his butt, not seeking entry, just making its presence known.  Grady must have an inhuman capacity to hold an erection, but if he did this as often as he’d implied . . .  Daniel shuddered, hating the feel of Grady’s body pressing against his back.  The major’s left leg was between Daniel’s legs, and the other man was pressing kisses along his shoulder.

Slowly, Daniel’s body began to respond.  His dick filled out, grew erect.  Grady’s kisses stopped briefly and Daniel looked up to see him staring at them in the mirror.  His eyelids were drooping, and his eyes were hot and full of hunger.

Daniel shuddered, but the sensations in his cock were intensifying.  Arousal rippled out from it in poisoned waves, filling Daniel’s body.  Abruptly, Grady stopped and stepped away.  Daniel was breathing heavily, and he wondered what could possibly be coming next.

A moment later the bastard returned and slipped one hand around Daniel’s waist from the side.  The other hand cold and slick with lubricant, slipped in between his ass cheeks.  “Grady, stop,” Daniel exclaimed, his eyes widening.  “Stop, please!”  The movement of his ass was sending thrills of pleasure to Daniel’s cock and it was enough to make him want to scream with humiliation and rage.

Grady raised the hand on Daniel’s waist up to twirl a nipple gently, making his cock throb with want.  Daniel tried to cringe away, but the collar on his neck stopped him short.  Suddenly, one finger slipped into Daniel’s anus, tightening Daniel’s balls and sending an electric pulse through Daniel’s cock.  The finger probed and stretched, and Daniel grimaced.  “Grady . . .”

“Try my first name, Daniel.  Nate.  It’s much more intimate.”

“Bastard.  The last thing I want is more intimacy.”  Another finger joined the first and Daniel closed his eyes and grit his teeth against a moan.  Being aroused already when this started was having an entirely different effect on him, making his cock grow harder, till it almost ached with need despite the fact that Grady wasn’t touching it at all.

All Daniel wanted to do was collapse to his knees and wait for the erection to subside, but a third finger joined the first two, and they seemed to be aiming for something within him that added substantially to the unwanted pleasure he felt.  It was infuriating.  His body wanted Grady to find it, whatever it was, but then, his body wasn’t very discriminating.

Abruptly, the fingers withdrew and Daniel felt Grady repositioning himself.  “God, Grady, no!  Not again.  Please no!”  Splitting Daniel’s ass with his hands, Grady thrust swiftly in halfway, then began to move more slowly, gradually filling Daniel till he was ready to scream.  Instead, harsh gasps of frustration and fury escaped him.  The hands came around to Daniel’s front, one fastening onto a nipple, the other slickly attacking Daniel’s cock.

Hard bites peppered Daniel’s shoulder as Grady sank in to his ass up to the hilt, filling him full.  Then Grady began to pump, both with his hips and with his hand, following the same rhythm.  Daniel couldn’t help himself, he was caught up in the physical exhilaration, the ecstasy of the sex.  He began to groan and tilt his hips till Grady suddenly found an angle that turned Daniel’s legs to mush.  Only Grady’s hands and the persistent thrusting -- and the chain on his neck -- kept him upright.

Daniel’s level of arousal grew higher and higher, and he was grunting in time with Grady’s thrusts.  Moans filled his ear, and he could feel Grady sucking hard on his shoulder.  Some part of him still knew this was wrong, that he didn’t want this, but with the greater part of his blood supply in his cock, it wasn’t a very loud part of him.

Finally, in a vast release of tension, spurts of semen burst out of him, splatting against the mirror and dribbling down.  Grady kept pumping for a moment, as if trying to drive him to further heights, but Daniel was done.  He was still trying to recover himself enough to endure the continued thrusts from behind, but even as his breathing began to return to normal, he felt his blood stirring, and his penis began to fill again.

He wanted to kill someone.  Grady, by preference, though he could think of half a dozen Goa’uld who’d make good substitutes.

Grady abruptly stopped moving, letting out a low gasp of desire.  Grasping Daniel’s hips firmly, he started grinding instead of thrusting.  Daniel moaned involuntarily at the sensation that caused, and his cock began to rise even more.  This was not happening.  This could not be happening.  Grady shifted Daniel’s hips with his hands, increasing the intensity of the sensations.  Eventually, he let loose hot streams of cum into Daniel’s ass.  The major let out a cry of ecstasy, then allowed himself to droop to his knees, leaving Daniel standing alone.

Daniel hoped that was all for now.  Maybe Grady would let him regain his balance in peace, but a sudden bite on his ass ended that notion.  Daniel jerked forward, the collar catching at his throat distressingly.  The other man shuffled around and looked up at him.  “God, I want you.  I want to make you cum till you can’t see straight.”

Daniel grit his teeth against his reply, and then let out a cry of mingled surprise and rage as Grady slurped his half-erect penis into his mouth and went to town, clutching bruisingly at his ass as he tormented Daniel’s cock with his teeth and tongue.

“Stop it, please, God, stop it,” Daniel moaned as Grady brought him closer to a second orgasm.  A finger pierced him unexpectedly and probed inside, finding a spot that sent Daniel exploding like a rocket.  He thrust forward, and Grady took him, sucking hard and long until Daniel was spent and sagging.

Grady stood and gave him a kiss.  Daniel didn’t even try to fight this time, too weary, but the taste of his own cum in his mouth made him want to gag.  A moment later, Grady bent and released the ankle chain from the slip rings, then stood and did the same with the chain from the ceiling.  Daniel started to sag all the way to the ground, but Grady lifted him up, over his shoulder, and carried him to the shower.  Loosing Daniel’s wrists from his neck he attached the cuffs to chains that came from the sides of the shower stall, then pulled them tight so that Daniel was standing with his arms outstretched on either side of him.  After removing the collar and tossing it out of the shower, Grady fiddled with the faucets and warm water came shooting out at Daniel from all sides.

Exhausted beyond measure, Daniel stood passively while Grady sudsed him up and lathered him.  The shower stretched on forever, but Daniel thought Grady was enjoying it.  It seemed odd to Daniel that a man with such a fetish for rape wanted to do such things for his victim.

After what must have been nearly forty-five minutes, Grady turned the water off and brought a towel in to dry Daniel off.  Then he left the bathroom for several minutes.  Daniel wanted to rest, wanted to sag to the floor, but the bonds on his wrists prevented him.

Grady came back after several minutes, wearing the bathrobe, and approached him with some kind of new toy.  “Not now,” Daniel moaned.  “I --”

“Hush, beautiful,” Grady said, pressing a quick kiss to his shoulder.  “I’ve left more marks than I intended to, but there’s no reason anyone should see you naked for a while, right?  You’ve done with Dr. Fraiser, and you won’t be going on any missions.”

“Right,” Daniel said dispiritedly.  He could sort of see the mark on the top of his shoulder, and if he looked in the right mirror, he could see several on his back.  Grady chuckled and then pulled Daniel’s glasses out of the pocket of the bathrobe, deftly settling them in place.

“I’m sorry, I delayed your lunch a bit with my enthusiasm.  It’s nearly two.”

Theoretically, Jack should have been home for two and a half hours, Daniel thought.  Assuming the plane had left on time.  That meant that the cavalry could be mustering at that moment, or they could already be on their way.

Grady stepped back for a moment, and Daniel realized that he must be allowing him to get a good look at himself.  As if bruises and hickeys from a rape were something Daniel wanted to gaze at.  Finally, he stepped forward, shaking out the collection of straps he held.

First, he wrapped it around Daniel’s ribcage.  To Daniel’s dry amusement, the straps were carefully arranged so that they left the nipples free.  It was all of black leather.  Two belts -- for lack of a better word -- wrapped around his ribcage, one above and one below the pectoral muscles.  They were connected by strips of leather, one along the sternum, one along the spine and one under each arm.  Straps came up from front and back and buckled over Daniel’s shoulders, and a third belt went around Daniel’s waist with still another around his hips, held to the rib arrangement by further strips of leather.  He felt like he was wearing a harness when Grady had finished doing up all the buckles.  The leather was stiff rather than supple against his skin.

When he was done with this, Grady reached into his other pocket and pulled out two shorter leather strips, which he slipped into pockets on the second rib belt and on the hip belt on Daniel’s right side.  They, too, had buckles, and Grady released Daniel’s right arm from the chain and brought it close in to Daniel’s side.

Daniel tried to fight him, but there was no energy left in him at the moment.  Between a lack of decent sleep for two nights running, lack of food intake and repeated flows of adrenaline, he was wiped out.  Grady attached Daniel’s right arm to his side midway between his shoulder and elbow, buckling the strap and then inserting a little padlock through the buckle to hold it in place.  He then removed the cuff and the sopping wet bandages, washed the injury again and bandaged it for a third time.  “You have got to let this heal.”

“None of this was my idea,” Daniel replied.  “You’re the one pushing things.”

“Hush,” Grady said as he attached Daniel’s forearm to his hip, the strap well above the wrist, padlocking it as well.

He followed most of the same procedure with Daniel’s left arm, but once he had that arm bandaged, instead of completing the restraint, he removed the strap from his upper arm entirely and said, “Come with me.”

Daniel shuffled along beside him, that being all that the chains on his legs would allow.  Grady took him through the large room with the sex table and out through another door into a room with a small round table and a pair of chairs that were upholstered in leather.  He sat Daniel down on a folded towel and knelt down to do something to the chain between Daniel’s ankles that essentially immobilized Daniel’s legs.  This was a room that was largely free of mirrors, so Daniel couldn’t follow his every movement.

Then he stood up and stepped back.  Smiling, he said, “I’ll bring your lunch in a moment.”

The chair back was high and Daniel leaned his head back against it.  This was crazy.  He wanted to go home.  The padlocks that held the buckles on the straps that immobilized his right arm were tiny but plenty strong, as he discovered when he tried to jerk them out.  His ankles had minimal movement space, and when Daniel bent to see if he could free them, he discovered that they, too, were locked in place.  Grady had a fetish for locks as well as rape, it seemed.  Of course, in his case they seemed to go hand in hand.

After several moments, Grady came back in with a plate of rice with beef and broccoli stir fry.  There was a cup of coffee, too, and Daniel gulped.  He needed to eat, but he felt a strong aversion to taking anything from Grady.

Choice didn’t really enter into it, though.  His stomach was churning with nausea, but it had a very empty feel to it as well.  Grady put the food down, placing all the silverware and the coffee cup on the left side.  Clearly, Grady meant to allow him use of his left arm only.

When Grady had laid out the food, he sat down, apparently waiting.  “Are you going to watch me eat?” Daniel asked.  “Since everything I do seems to turn you on, maybe you’d better leave the room so I can finish my meal without extraneous ‘help.’”

Grady grinned and stood up.  He walked over and dropped a kiss on the top of Daniel’s head, allowing his hand to stroke down Daniel’s cheek to his jaw.  He pulled Daniel’s chin up and bent to give him a long, lingering kiss.  It seemed pointless to pull away, Grady had full control over his movements, that had been proven time and again.  He let Grady’s tongue do what it wanted without hindrance, but without help as well.

Grady patted his cheek and then left.

Daniel ate the food that had been placed before him, barely tasting it.  He drank the coffee, hoping the caffeine would ease the headache that was beginning.  When he’d both eaten and drunk, he leaned his head back against the chair, hoping against all hope that Jack would be the next person through that door, humiliating as it would be to be discovered in a black leather harness with one of his arms strapped to his side and his legs locked down to the chair.  He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

It could only have been moments later when Grady came back in, jerking Daniel awake again.  “Time for my beauty to sleep, is it?” the major said softly.

“I’m not your anything,” Daniel snapped without thinking.

Grady took hold of his chin and forced Daniel to look up into his face.  “You’re mine, all right, you just haven’t acknowledged it yet.”

Daniel bit back his reply.  He didn’t need to piss Grady off, or turn him on.  He needed to placate the bastard, to find some way to be boring.  Since that didn’t seem to be achievable, he’d have to settle for not being overtly provocative in any way.

After binding his left arm in the same way his right arm was already bound, Grady freed his feet from their lockdown and took him through that central room into yet another side room, this one with a king-sized four poster bed with the covers pulled down.  Daniel stopped dead on the threshold of that room and had to be forced through the door.  Without his hands to catch at things, he didn’t have a snowball’s chance on Abydos, though.

Grady lifted him easily off his feet and deposited him on the bed.  Shedding the bathrobe, he joined him, pulling the covers up and draping his arm across Daniel’s chest.  Nuzzling close to Daniel’s neck, he murmured, “Get some sleep, beautiful.”  Then he sighed and fell asleep himself.

Despite the close contact with a very naked rapist, Daniel managed to calm himself enough to sleep.  Exhaustion wasn’t his friend in this situation any more than hunger was.


	56. Chapter 56

Glad to be back in Colorado Springs, Jack left General Hammond at his car and climbed into his truck.  He went home and looked around to see if Daniel was there, fully expecting that the archeologist would have gone to the mountain without Jack there to stop him.  He found Daniel’s note explaining that he was going in to work and sighed.  The man couldn’t take a day off on his own to save his life.  Jack got cleaned up, tossed his bag in his room and pulled some clothes on.  He was going to the mountain to bring Daniel home and have a long chat with him about time off and what that concept meant.

He got in his truck and drove to the base.  “So, when did Dr. Jackson sign in?” he asked Sgt. Hansen at the gate.

“Dr. Jackson?” Hansen repeated.  “He hasn’t been in today, I don’t think.”  He checked over the entry logs.  “No sir, he hasn’t been in at all.”

Jack nodded slowly.  That was odd.  The note had said very clearly that he was going to the mountain.  Jack headed to his office, wondering if there might be a voice mail or an e-mail that explained things.

There were voice mails, but none of them were from Daniel.  By the time he’d checked that, his computer was up and he opened his e-mail program.

There was one from Daniel, but, oddly, it was from last night, no more than a half hour after Jack had spoken with him.  Curious, Jack keyed it open.

 

> Jack,
> 
> Had an odd visit from Grady this evening.  Kind of disturbing.  Need some advice on how to handle it, so remind me on Monday if I don’t say anything.
> 
> Daniel

 

The phone behind him rang and he picked it up, wondering what that jackass had done to bother Daniel.  “O’Neill.”

It was Sciaparelli.  “Colonel, have you heard from Dr. Jackson?”

“No, I haven’t, lieutenant.  Why?”

“I’m just getting a little worried.  He told me yesterday that he’d be in between nine and ten, but I haven’t heard from him and he hasn’t shown up.  Not that he doesn’t deserve a weekend, of course, but I would have thought he’d call.”  There was a pause and Jack was silent, digesting this information.  “I don’t know him very well, but --”

“No, you’re right, Sciaparelli.  Daniel would call.  Have you tried calling him?”

“At your house, at his apartment and on his cell phone.”

Jack blinked.  There was real anxiety in the man’s tone, and he wondered what might have prompted it.  “Is there some cause for concern that I should know about?”  The hesitation was answer enough.  Jack bowled over Sciaparelli’s attempt at dissimulation.  “I’ll be up there in five minutes.”  He hung up and called Sam’s office.  As he’d expected, she was there.  Dispensing with his usual lecture on getting a life, he said, “You heard from Daniel today?”

“I stopped by his office around noon, but the only one there was Tony -- Lt. Sciaparelli.”

“I know who Tony is, Carter,” Jack growled.  He had a bad feeling about this in his gut, and he tended to trust his gut.  “Thing is, Daniel told Sciaparelli he’d be in today, and he left me a note at home saying he was coming in.  His car isn’t at my house, but he isn’t here.  Does that seem a little odd to you?”

He could almost see her straightening and running her fingers through her hair.  “It seems very odd, sir.  Have you tried to call him?”

“No, but Sciaparelli has.  Would you try again for me?  I’m heading up to Daniel’s office.  Sciaparelli seems unusually worried, and I want to find out why.  Meet me there when you’re finished trying to get ahold of Daniel.”

“Yes sir.”  She hung up with a decisive click.

When he got to Daniel’s office, Sciaparelli was pacing.  The lieutenant looked up.  “Sir, I’m not sure I should --”

“You should,” Jack said, interrupting him.  With Sciaparelli’s expression, the feeling in Jack’s gut had gone from bad to worse.  “Trust me.”

“It would be an invasion of Dr. Jackson’s privacy,” Sciaparelli said uneasily.

“Would it help if I ordered you to tell me?”  Sciaparelli still looked uncomfortable.  “Look, we may not have time for this.  Daniel seems to have dropped off the face of the planet.”

Sciaparelli blinked.  “Sir?  I don’t think being out of contact for a few hours constitutes dropping off the face of the planet.”

Jack took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “This is true, Sciaparelli, but this is also Daniel Jackson we’re talking about.  He’s a supremely considerate man, and tends to call when he changes his plans.  He’s also a trouble magnet.”  Jack grimaced, hoping that he was wrong, that Daniel had just run into a friend, failed to notice that his phone was powered down and forgotten to call and let anyone know he wasn’t coming in.  But the feeling in his gut was only getting worse the more he thought about it.  “Tell me what’s bugging you, and if it’s an unnecessary breach of his privacy, I’ll forget it.”

“Once you’ve heard this, sir, you wouldn’t be able to forget it.”

“Sciaparelli . . .” Jack said warningly.

The lieutenant nodded and gestured Jack to a seat.  “I’ve already got it cued up.  I was transcribing Daniel’s notes from last night when I ran into a phone conversation with you, which was followed by this.”  He pressed a tape button and Jack heard the tail end of his conversation with Daniel from the previous evening.

 

> _Daniel:  Sure, Dad.  Have a good night, Jack._

 

There was a brief pause, and then a new voice started speaking.

 

> _Grady:  Dr. Daniel Jackson.  So, was O’Neill whispering sweet nothings?_

 

The major’s voice was knowing almost, and vaguely offensive, but Daniel just sounded puzzled when he responded.

 

> _Daniel:  What?  Is there something I can do for you, major?_
> 
> _Grady:  You know, I think you have most of the base fooled.  They all seem to think, especially the people in charge, that you’re some kind of innocent victim._

 

The contempt in Grady’s voice was loud and clear, but Daniel remained polite and still sounded completely baffled.

 

> _Daniel: Look, Major Grady, I’ve got work to do.  If there’s nothing I can do for you, maybe you should be heading home._
> 
> _Grady:  Maybe you shouldn’t talk to me that way, Dr. Jackson,_

 

There was an overtone of warning in the major’s voice, and during the pause that followed this remark, Jack could hear odd, indeterminate sounds that could be the two men scuffling or it could just be someone shifting a lot in their chair.  Somehow Jack doubted it was the latter.  Then Grady’s voice came again, sounding sly and full of innuendo.

 

> _Grady:  Dr. Daniel Jackson, interstellar slut.  I’ve been reading through the reports, and you have been shaking your ass at more people and aliens than I can easily count._

 

A distinct and silent pause followed this insulting commentary during which Jack imagined Daniel’s mind ticking into confused overdrive.  Jack wished he had Grady’s neck in front of him so he could snap it.  The last thing they needed was Grady convincing Daniel that he was somehow asking for the wretched treatment he occasionally got.

 

> _Daniel:  I’m really not sure --_

 

Grady cut him off, voice harsh and reminiscent of a drill instructor.

 

> _Grady:  I’m really not sure you should be speaking.  I didn’t ask you a question, civilian, I made a statement._
> 
> _Daniel:  Back off!_

 

Now Daniel sounded angry, and there was a definite sound of scuffling.  A moment later, when Grady spoke, his voice sounded muffled as if he was speaking from further away.

 

> _Grady:  What, you don’t want to put out for an ordinary human?  Or is my rank not high enough?_

 

Put out?  Jack blinked as a whole new set of ideas entered his mind.  He’d been thinking that Grady was another jackass like the ones he’d just sent packing, but that ‘put out’ gave it an entirely different spin.  Maybe.

Daniel’s voice was cold and precise when he replied.

 

> _Daniel:  You are confused or misinformed.  Now get the hell out of my office!_

 

There was another brief pause, not quite long enough for the recording to cut out.  When Grady spoke again, his tone held more promise than threat.

 

> _Grady:  This isn’t over, Jackson._

 

Sciaparelli shut the tape off and looked up at him.  “After that it’s just a lot of mumbling about getting his stuff together and what he’d need in the morning.”  Jack nodded, his lips tight as he contemplated just what he was going to do with Major Grady when he got hold of him.  “You see what I mean, though.  Having heard it, you can’t take no notice of it, but I thought it was just possible that Dr. Jackson might not want --”

Jack shook his head and cut him off.  “Daniel alluded to this conversation in an e-mail to me,” he said impatiently.  “And this kind of thing needs to be reported no matter what Daniel might prefer.  If people will treat the premier civilian in this facility like that, there’s no telling how they treat Rothman or the others.”

Sciaparelli nodded, flushing.  “But I thought -- in any case, I imagined that this might be a partial explanation for Daniel’s failure to come in today.  If he wanted to stay away from the scene of the confrontation . . .”

Jack blinked, considering the notion.  Daniel might be embarrassed, might be uncomfortable, but it wouldn’t wash.  “Daniel would call,” Jack said.  “For one thing, he knows what I’m like when he goes AWOL.”

Sciaparelli’s eyebrows went up.  “AWOL, sir?”

“Not literally,” Jack growled.

There were footsteps in the hall, then Carter came in.  “I can’t get him, sir.  I called his doorman, and he says that Daniel hasn’t been to his apartment at all today.  I tried Catherine on the off chance that he’d gone there for some reason, and just succeeded in alarming her.”  She shook her head.  “He told me just the other day that he doesn’t really have any friends outside the SGC, that it’s hard to make them.  What’s going on, sir?”

Jack grimaced.  “Damned if I know,” he said.  He might be overreacting, but then again, he might not.  It was surely better to err on the side of caution.  But . . . surely Grady wouldn’t have done anything stupid . . . not with his career on the line.

Hell.  Making a snap decision, he turned to Sciaparelli.  “Get Teal’c up here pronto,” he said.  Tony turned and picked up the phone on Daniel’s desk.  Jack looked at Carter.  “Can you get me the phone number and address of Major Nathaniel Grady?” he asked.

“Sure sir, but why?”  Even as she asked the question, though, she was sitting down at Daniel’s computer and logging on.

“When Teal’c gets here, I’ll explain,” he said.  She nodded and turned all her focus to the task at hand.  Moments later she had it.

Teal’c turned the corner into the room bare seconds after that.  “O’Neill.  Is something amiss with DanielJackson?”

“Not sure yet,” Jack said.  “No one knows where he is, despite the fact that yesterday he told the lieutenant here that he would be coming in today, and he left a note for me sometime before three o’clock today telling me the same thing.”

“But he has not come?”  Teal’c’s tone made this statement a question.  Jack nodded.  “That is not like DanielJackson.”

“No, it’s not,” Jack said.  He gestured towards the tape recorder and Sciaparelli got busy with it instantly, rewinding.  “Add to that this conversation that was caught on tape in here last night . . .”

When Sciaparelli pressed play, the others listened in silence, though Sam’s eyes flashed and Teal’c grew even more still.  At the end of it, they sat silently for a moment.  Then Sam cleared her throat apologetically.  “I don’t see . . . Daniel didn’t sound frightened at all.  Just angry, and maybe a little resigned afterwards.”

“You don’t see why I wanted Grady’s phone number and address,” Jack filled in.  She nodded, looking a bit uncomfortable.  Teal’c just raised an eyebrow.  “I’ve been . . .”  Jack bit his lip.  “I’ve been watching Grady ever since the debriefing after the retrieval of the naquadah reactor.  He’s been a little . . . I don’t know, odd about Daniel.  I can’t explain it exactly, call it a hunch.”

“I have found your ‘hunches’ to be extremely accurate in the past, O’Neill,” Teal’c observed neutrally.

“Still,” Sam said, “we can’t exactly barge in on this guy . . . he’s been a prize jerk, but --”

Jack shook his head and she stopped.  “I think he needs to be informed that he’s being removed from the program as soon as possible.  After all, I canned four guys earlier this week for the same kind of behavior.  Let me call Hammond, and you two, I . . .”  Jack shook his head.  “I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.  I want you two ready to go in twenty minutes, down outside the locker room.”  They nodded and left.

He picked up the phone and called Hammond at home.  A young woman answered, and, sounding a little aggravated, she agreed to go fetch him.

“Yes, colonel?” the general said.  His voice was very contained.

“We may have a situation, sir.”  He outlined the conversation on the tape and Hammond humphed.  “We haven’t been able to get in touch with Daniel today, sir, and I’m finding it a bit alarming.  I thought I’d drop by Grady’s house and let him know that we’re removing him from the program -- and take that opportunity to see if there’s anything odd going on.”

“Do as you see fit, colonel.  I’ll keep my cell phone on in case you need authorization for something.  My granddaughters are here for a visit.”

“I understand, sir,” Jack said.  He turned to Sciaparelli who was watching him with wide eyes.  “I want you to stay here, lieutenant.  If this is all nonsense, you may get a call from Daniel at any time.  If that happens, call my cell phone immediately.”

“Right, sir,” Sciaparelli said.  “Are you really worried, though?”

“Spidey sense is tingling,” Jack said.  “I’ll call you and let you know what comes up.  You can sleep on the couch if you get tired.  Get them to send you food from the commissary.”

Eyes wide, Sciaparelli nodded and sank into the desk chair again.

Jack went down to one of the weapons lockers and checked out a trio of handguns, then went to the locker room where he found Carter waiting outside alone.  Sam looked crisp and fashionable in her summer civvies, as always.  Jack handed her a .45 and watched her stow it out of sight.  Despite that, he still wasn’t sure how she’d managed it, but she did.

A moment later Teal’c emerged, a hat pulled low over his eyes.  He had an envelope in his hands and he looked very serious.  “I took the liberty of looking within Major Grady’s locker, O’Neill,” he said.  “I found photographs of DanielJackson beneath his exercise clothes.”  Teal’c held out the envelope and Jack took it.  Opening it, he pulled out four photographs.  They’d all clearly been taken without Daniel’s knowledge, and they’d all been taken outside the mountain.  The last one gave him the willies though.  It had to have been taken with a telephoto lens, because it was of both Jack and Daniel.  Grady had caught them on their late night walk, under a street lamp.  There was no doubting who the focus of the picture was, however.  Daniel was laughing.

Sam took them from his nerveless hands and started muttering darkly about her fellow major as she flipped through them.  She stuck them back into the envelope and tucked them into her purse.  “We’ll need them for evidence later, probably,” she said.

Jack nodded.  “Let’s get a move on.”  The other two nodded and followed him to the surface.  It was a hell of a risk for Grady to keep photographs of a male co-worker in his locker, but some men got a thrill out of taking risks like that.  But those photos looked like something a stalker would keep.

They borrowed one of the base SUVs and headed out towards Grady’s place.


	57. Chapter 57

Daniel woke suddenly and completely, opening his eyes to find Grady kneeling over the top of him.  He blinked twice and said, “What now?”  At least that’s what he intended to say.  Grady swooped in as soon as Daniel opened his mouth and began to kiss him intensely.

After several moments, he drew back and Daniel looked apprehensively up at him.  “Dare I ask to go to the bathroom?” he asked.

“Ask the moon,” Grady said with an airy wave of his hand.

“Okay,” Daniel said, smiling tightly.  “I want to go home.”

“Daniel . . .”  Grady shook his head reprovingly.

Daniel rolled his eyes.  “Oh, I’ve got it.  This is where I ask for something impossible so that you can promise it to me and look virtuous, but you never have to follow through.”

“Look, Daniel, you’re a good lay, but I’m not in love with you or anything.”

“Then why did you tell me to ask for the moon?” Daniel asked.  Keeping him talking delayed other activities, and talking was something Daniel was ordinarily good at.

Grady sat back, resting his hands on Daniel’s thighs.  “You know, you’re really spoiling the moment.”

Daniel’s eyes widened.  “Moment?  What moment?  There is no moment!”

The major’s eyes darkened, and Daniel realized that he hadn’t been watching his tongue as closely as he ought to have.  “Well, then, we’ll have to find that moment for you, won’t we?” Grady said maliciously.  Threading his fingers through the straps on Daniel’s chest, he yanked upwards, pulling Daniel into a sitting position and leaned in for a long kiss.  The temptation to bite down hard enough to draw blood was growing, but, as Daniel was debating the pros and cons of risking it, Grady drew back and let Daniel go so that he flopped back down onto the bed and bounced.

The major rolled off the bed and, taking something from the bedside table, went down to the foot.  He lifted the chain that ran between the cuffs on Daniel’s ankles and knelt on the end of the bed.  Slowly, he lifted Daniel’s legs and inched forward till Daniel’s knees were resting over his shoulders.  Daniel shifted, trying to roll to get his legs off Grady, trying to get away even though there was nowhere to go.

“Um . . . the bathroom?” Daniel said pleadingly.

“Ah, hell!”  He slid down the bed and onto the floor.  Walking over to Daniel’s side, he pulled the bound man up to his feet by means of the straps.  They crossed through the room with the table again and into the mirrored bathroom.  It had clearly been cleaned since their last visit.  Grady must have done that while Daniel ate.  He walked Daniel up to the toilet and reached down to Daniel’s penis.  “Go ahead,” he said, aiming for him.

“What?”  Daniel shifted uneasily.  “Are you crazy?  I can’t . . . not with you . . . get away from me.”  Grady laughed and let Daniel’s left arm loose.  “Now leave,” Daniel said.  With a raised eyebrow, Grady turned his back and Daniel rolled his eyes.  “Like that’s any help in this room,” he growled.

“It’s as good as you’re getting.”

Daniel took a deep breath and forced himself to calm.  He concentrated, trying to pretend this was like any public restroom where people could . . . “There are cameras?  You mean I’m being filmed while urinating?”

“Don’t worry, beautiful,” Grady said.  “We don’t do those kinds of films.  Definitely cutting room floor material.”

Shoving the image of a room with a floor full of strips of film of naked Daniel Jackson out of his head, Daniel managed to take care of nature’s call.  He went to the sink and washed his hand, but Grady caught hold of him before he could do much more.  The major wrapped one arm around him and reached for his left arm.  There was a brief period during which Daniel managed to keep his arm free, but it didn’t last long.  Grady deftly strapped Daniel’s left arm back to his side.

Then grabbing a handful of straps in back, Grady steered him around to face a bench that Daniel had noticed before but ignored.  Like everything else in the room that wasn’t covered with mirrored glass, it was of burnished stainless steel.  A cushion of gray velvet was attached along the top of it.  Grady forced Daniel to kneel on the floor at one end of it.  The seat wasn’t very long.  When Grady shoved him down along its length, it ended just at his collarbones.  The cushion was soft, but Daniel could feel every strap pressing into him.

When Grady released the pressure holding him down, Daniel popped back up again and tried to move away.  The major shoved him down again and pulled straps out from under the bench that hooked into the harness he was wearing at the ribs and at the waist.

Daniel struggled against the restraint for a few moments, then realized that Grady was doing nothing to him, just watching avidly, stroking his own cock.  He shuddered, and the other man chuckled, standing up and running his hand absently along the length of his own dick while walked over to a cabinet.  Daniel watched in the mirrors as Grady pulled out yet another tube of lubricant, and then he allowed his head to relax, to hang off the end of the bench.

Jack would come.  Jack would come and shoot this son of a bitch and then . . . Daniel’s mind boggled.  What would they do then?  A bit of spine asserted itself.  And then Daniel would return to his normal life and things would go on as they had before.  He was damned if he was going to let this bastard change his life in any significant way.

Grady’s hands on his hips pulled him backwards just a bit, disrupting his thoughts.  He heard the liquidy sound of Grady warming the lube in his hand, then felt one hand slide between the cheeks of his ass while the other moved around front to grasp his cock.

Daniel closed his eyes and tried to ignore it, tried to disregard the sense of arousal that was building in his cock as Grady squeezed and pulled it and as fingers began to explore his ass.  Grady had picked up on what had made Daniel’s body react and was using it against him.  What Grady didn’t seem to grasp was that Daniel knew this, and knew that he couldn’t control the reactions he was having.  There was no way the bastard was going to convince him that the purely physical response translated into anything deeper.  Daniel couldn’t help wondering, though, how many men Grady had done just that to.  For one thing, contemplating that distracted his mind from what Grady was doing to _him._

He had his fists clenched against his hips, and his eyes were squeezed shut.  Anger surged through him as Grady prepared to rape him yet a fourth time, while doing his damnedest to make certain that Daniel got aroused.

Daniel didn’t know how many times he could cum in one day.  It had never been tested, but it looked as if Grady wanted to find out, regardless of what Daniel wanted.  He --

Daniel’s thoughts broke off as one of Grady’s probing fingers hit something that sent an explosive jolt of pleasure to his dick.  Grady leaned over his back and caught Daniel’s ear in his teeth.  “See, part of you likes me.”

Daniel bit down hard on his tongue to keep from retorting, but then all his attention was captured completely as Grady repeatedly hit the spot he’d found, making Daniel’s body wild with erotic exhilaration.  Dimly, the thinking part of Daniel remained aware while the rest of him writhed and moaned.  His hips tilted back involuntarily as his body sought the sensation, and Grady must have taken it for an invitation because a moment later his fingers vanished, leaving Daniel gasping for breath, caught between his body’s aching need for release and his utter helpless rage with the bastard who was using him this way.

Daniel let out a scream that mingled pleasure and anger as Grady slammed in, ramming his cock into Daniel so hard that he felt himself shift forward a bit.  Daniel’s skin caught on the fabric of the bench cushion while the smooth leather slid forward, causing his nipples to press against the edge of the lower rib belt of the harness.  Daniel gasped at the sharp pinch of pain and the sensations that it shot straight to his groin.  Then Grady’s cock stimulated the spot his fingers had found earlier and that sent Daniel off like a rocket.  He heard the major groan with delight as his ass clenched down tight on the man’s engorged penis.  Grady remained still, buried in Daniel’s ass, riding out the orgasm.

Then, as Daniel’s head sagged again and he panted, Grady suddenly withdrew almost completely.  He placed his hands on the sides of the belt that rode Daniel’s hips, he said, “Ready for it?”

Disbelief flooded him.  “Bastard!” he gasped.  “Get off me!”

The major laughed delightedly, a sound Daniel had come to despise.  Pulling back and thrusting forward at the same time, Grady forced himself deeper into Daniel than he’d ever gone before.  Letting out a whimper of he wasn’t sure what, Daniel tried to keep breathing, tried to distract himself from the sensations that were cascading through his body.

Using his hands on the harness to control the angle of Daniel’s hips, Grady began to pump rhythmically, groaning in time with the movement.  There was very little that Daniel could do but endure it, but his pride, his fury, his sheer damnable stubbornness, wouldn’t let him not do the one thing he could.

Grady’s hands were on the hip strap next to Daniel’s.  Unfurling his fists, Daniel twisted his wrists and dug his nails into the backs of Grady’s hands as hard as he could.

It didn’t seem to make a dent in Grady’s enthusiasm or his focus.  The major shifted his hands between thrusts so that they were further out of range, but he kept thrusting, losing neither momentum nor rhythm.

When his orgasm hit, he stopped thrusting and began to grind against Daniel, shooting more semen into the helpless man’s backside.  Finally sated, he pulled out and stood up.  “That hurts,” he said mildly, Daniel craned to see Grady looking down at the backs of his hands.  Without his glasses, he couldn’t see if there was any blood.  Grady dealt Daniel a stinging slap on the ass and walked over to the sink to wash his hands.

Leaving Daniel where he was, he took a shower, for which Daniel wanted to strangle him as things oozed and sweat dried on his skin and started to itch.  His neck was getting sore from holding his head up at such an uncomfortable angle, and letting it hang was growing nearly as painful.

The water in the shower stopped, and Daniel looked to see Grady, dripping, walking across the room.  To his great relief Grady’s dick was flaccid.  It looked particularly harmless at the moment, and Daniel wished it would come into reach so he could rip it off.  The door opened and Grady left the room, shutting the door behind him.  Daniel lay there, on the bench, his hands still bound to his hips, the harness hooked down to the bench, feeling filthy and sticky and very, very alone.  It was too much.  He didn’t want Grady to come back.  He did want Jack to come find him, but there was a large part of him that didn’t want it to be now.  Not while he was in such a degrading pose, not while stuff was still dripping down his balls from his anus.  And, if Grady were to be believed, there were cameras recording it all.

Tears sprang again to Daniel’s eyes, and he fought them.  As if it wasn’t bad enough that crying was as embarrassing as hell to start with, Grady found it a turn on.  It was one hell of a measure of the man that he found the tears of a man he was raping to be erotic.

Grady came back in and lifted Daniel from the bench finally.  Stiff from the unusual position they’d been forced into for so long, his legs didn’t want to support him, and Grady helped him to stand for a moment.  He was wearing the robe again, and he was careful to keep Daniel’s hands out of reach of anything important.

Gently, he took Daniel back into the shower stall.  Every muscle Daniel had seemed to ache abominably, whether caused by stress from the unusual positions Grady had force him into, strain from the struggling he had done, or from deliberate trauma, it didn’t make much difference.  Grady released first one arm and then the other, chaining him once more to the walls of the shower before removing his bathrobe again.  Daniel stood passively while the bastard washed him thoroughly.  Not that he had much choice.

The backs of Grady’s hands were bloody from where Daniel had dug in.  He hadn’t bandaged the wounds, but if he’d been planning of showering twice, he probably would have waited.  It seemed like such a little thing in comparison to the assaults Grady had already inflicted on Daniel, and the ones he was undoubtedly planning as he soaped Daniel’s back and buttocks.  As he had before, he used a telephone shower head to clean between Daniel’s ass cheeks very thoroughly.

A finger wiggled through into his anus briefly, and Grady chuckled as Daniel twitched away.  When Grady came around front, he seriously contemplated trying to knee the bastard in the balls, but wasn’t sure he wanted to know what the response would be.  Though the major seemed to be taking the raking of Daniel’s nails across the backs of his hands in stride, he somehow doubted that he’d take an attack on what he seemed to consider the most important part of his anatomy quite so coolly.

Besides, the energy just wasn’t there for such an attack.  It wouldn’t gain him anything positive, but it could bring him a lot of pain if Grady retaliated.

So, instead of attacking, he stood there, praying for a miracle.


	58. Chapter 58

After seeing the photos, Carter didn’t raise any objections to breaking into Grady’s house when there was no answer to either phone calls or knocks.  Teal’c made short work of the deadbolt, but the door frame would never be the same.

Jack headed upstairs while Teal’c checked out the ground floor.  Sam went straight for the computer.  There were three bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs, all of which were empty of Nathaniel Grady and Daniel Jackson.

He was heading down the stairs again when he heard a choked cry from the living room where Sam was working.  He jumped the last six steps and cornered by swinging on the banister.  Teal’c came in by the opposite door.  Sam turned, eyes wide with fury.  “Sir, he’s -- he --”  Then she let out a string of the bluest curses he’d ever heard out of her mouth.

Jack walked forward, looking at the screen of the computer monitor.  It looked pretty normal.  Outlook was visible with some kind of media player window open on top of it.  It was stopped, but Sam was still gesturing towards it.  The window read merely “Beautiful” in big blue letters, some kind of script font, against a creamy background.

“What is it, Carter?”

She blinked.  “Don’t you -- can’t you --”  Turning back to the computer screen she cleared her throat.  “Oh, it stopped.  God, sir, I --”

“What is it?” he asked again.

“He has him, he definitely has him.”

“Carter?”

She clicked the play button on the window with her mouse and a video began to play.  A voice spoke over a black screen, one Jack didn’t know.  “Innocence corrupted, virginity stolen, beauty possessed.  Witness the training of an untouched man in the arts of discipline.  An unbowed, unbroken prize.  Watch as he is taken for the first time by his master.”

Jack was shaking his head.  It couldn’t be . . . there was no way . . . but the ghastly pallor of Carter’s face indicated otherwise, and then the screen lit.  Daniel lay, bound on his back to a padded table, largely clothed.  His shirt was open down the front and his feet were bare, but otherwise his clothes were intact.  At his feet stood Major Grady, a pair of scissors slipping into the hem of the tan slacks Daniel was wearing.  The view was from above, so Jack was actually assuming it was Grady, but the red hair in a buzz cut seemed a good hint.

Daniel’s eyes were wide and full of alarm.  He was looking almost straight into the camera, but he didn’t seem to be aware of it.  He seemed, actually to be watching something, and Jack guessed that this camera must be somehow hidden behind a mirror.  The voice spoke again.  “He yearns to be possessed but doesn’t know it yet.”

“Sam, how much of this is there?” Jack demanded, voice cracking as the scene shifted to a side view close up of Grady’s hands and the scissors as they sliced into Daniel’s pants.

“Watch as his master educates him in his newly discovered role.”  The scene shifted again, back to a top view.  Daniel was naked now, still in the same spread-eagled position, but Grady stood, clothed only in a bathrobe, with a hand resting under Daniel’s knee.  Jack watched as the major started to shift Daniel’s bonds to spread his legs for . . .

“Fuck!” Jack growled.  The scene shifted yet again, and Grady was kneeling between Daniel’s legs.  Nothing was visible from this overhead view, but Grady was clearly biting Daniel’s neck, his hands were on the table on either side of the archeologist’s head, and Daniel had a furious, humiliated set to his jaw, and his face was turned away.

The camera cut to a close up on Daniel’s face, showing the tears coursing down the man’s cheeks, the horror and noncomprehension in his blue eyes.

“His life will never be the same again,” the voice said, and the screen went black.

“Where are they?” Jack demanded.

“I don’t know, sir.  I --”

“I have been in the basement, O’Neill, they are not in this building.”

“Where the hell did you find this?” Jack asked.

“It was in his e-mail,” Sam said, looking utterly enraged.  “And sir, you . . .”  She clicked on the outlook window and brought the e-mail to the forefront.  Jack read, cold rage settling over his mind.

 

> Man, Nate, you have found a winner here.  He’s so responsive.  I’ve included both versions of the teaser, and let me tell you, I have never seen anything so hot.  I’m not sure how I’ll manage to edit the film.  I bet we could charge double for these.  Keep it up, and keep it coming.  I can’t wait to see what you do to him next.
> 
> Try the bathroom.  That would be just incredible.
> 
> I’ll be disappointed, almost, when you’ve worked him around to being willing.  This rape angle is going to sell like hotcakes.  But if you can get him to play along, I don’t know, man, this could send our sales through the roof.
> 
> Once you okay these, I’ll send them out to the usual lists.
> 
> Glen

 

“Rape angle?” Jack asked.  “Rape angle!?”

“I haven’t looked at the second one.”  She looked sick to her stomach and Jack couldn’t blame her.  Not only had Daniel clearly been raped by Grady, every moment of it seemed to have been videotaped and watched by some other pervert who was editing a film . . .

“Open it up, Carter.”

The only real difference between the two was that the second one had the faces distorted somewhat to conceal the identities of the participants.  The ending was the same, and only Daniel’s eyes had been blurred, allowing the audience to see the tears tracking down his face.

Jack turned away and dialed his phone.  Hammond answered on the second ring.  There was an amused tone in his voice that Jack was sorry to have to take away.  No man should have to be called away from this granddaughters by something like this.  “Sir, I think you should find some place private to talk to me from.”

“Of course, colonel.  Just a moment.”  Jack heard him talking to the little girls in the background and then a few moments later Hammond said, “I’m alone, Jack, what is it?”

Taking a deep breath, Jack said, “Grady is holding Daniel prisoner, sir, and we’re not sure where.”

“How do you know?”

Jack gulped.  “He . . . he’s raping him and making recordings, sir.”  Hammond didn’t speak, but Jack could hear his breathing on the other end.  “It’s complicated, and I don’t understand all of it, but we’d already had signs that Grady had something of a stalker thing going.”

“You’ve seen some kind of videotape of Dr. Jackson being raped by Major Grady?” Hammond said, and Jack could sympathize.  It was a little hard to take in.

“Yes sir,” he said, having to struggle to keep his voice level.  “I’m not sure how all of this is --”

Sam interrupted him with a shriek.  Hammond demanded to know what was happening and Jack turned to see a new video image.  This was a room filled with mirrors, and Daniel was lying strapped facedown down to a bench with Grady behind him.  The archeologist was wrapped in some kind of black leather harness that left plenty of access to his skin, otherwise he was naked.  Jack could see that Grady had reached around with his right hand to grip Daniel’s penis, and with the other hand he was probing inside Daniel’s ass.

“Mother fucking son of a bitch!” he growled.  Daniel was writhing, clearly aroused, but Jack knew all too well how easily that could be achieved in an unwilling man if the rapist had the right knowledge and skill.

“Colonel, what is going on?”

“Carter’s found another video -- it’s all digital so -- fuck!”

Grady had removed his left hand from Daniel’s anus and was resting it on his lower back, clearly preparing to thrust forward into the archeologist with his erect cock.  Fury was welling in Jack, but it was under a lid that wouldn’t lift until he’d dealt with the situation.

“O’Neill?”

“Not now!” Jack snapped.  There was silence on the phone, not so from the video.  They could hear Grady’s murmurs, and Daniel’s groans.  Grady thrust in and Daniel let out a scream and ejaculated.  Jack was clenching his hand so hard on the phone that it hurt.  What were they going to have to go through -- would Daniel think there was something wrong with him that he’d responded?  Grady, sunk into Daniel’s ass to the fullest, stayed still, moaning as Daniel’s body twitched and tensed with the orgasm.

Then, after Daniel had collapsed, his head hanging off the end of the bench, Grady withdrew, shifting his hands so that they were clutched in the straps of the harness on Daniel’s hips.  The view changed, and Jack blinked at the suddenness of it.  Now, instead of viewing the scene from the side, they were looking from some point beyond Daniel’s head, which gave Jack a very good look at the gleeful malice in Grady’s eyes when he spoke.  “Ready for it?” he asked.

Daniel’s head came up, eyes wide with a rage Jack had rarely seen in him.  “Bastard!” he gasped.  “Get off me!”

Grady yanked hard on the straps and thrust forward and Jack turned away.  “Can you make it stop, Carter?” he asked.

“Sir, I --”  Her voice was choked and he looked down at her face to see that her eyes were streaming tears.  Shocked, he stared at her as she spoke despairingly.  “I can’t, sir.  It’s live.  It’s a live feed from wherever they are.”

Jack’s eyes went to the screen again where Grady was pumping away madly.  He stepped out of the room, aware that he couldn’t have a sensible conversation with Hammond while watching his best friend being raped by a man that he hadn’t liked but had trusted.

“Colonel?”  Hammond’s voice crackled with impatience.

“Sorry sir.  I thought it was a recording, but . . .”  His voice broke and he tried to clear his throat.  “It’s a live feed.  Daniel’s being raped as we speak, and the bastard has the feed piped to his own house, and to at least one other person who edits together porn movies that they sell.”

From inside the room, he heard a computerized voice.  “You have mail.”

There were loud angry sounds issuing from the phone as Jack turned and went in to find that Sam had mercifully minimized the live feed and was looking at the mail program.

 

> Nate, you are not going to believe the response Beautiful has gotten.  It’s only been out there for maybe four hours and I’ve already got more than five hundred orders.  More than half the credit cards have cleared, already and I’ve got more coming in.
> 
> I’ve got the final version of the film compressing as I write this, and I’ll start sending it out to the internet customers in the next couple of minutes.  The CD burners are going already.  Some of the guys already have the uncut version, and are begging for more.  Mike says he wants to see something with a dildo.  Oh, and Steve says Janna wants to try your little toy out.  Once you’ve gotten him a little more comfortable with this, you have got to take him to the club.
> 
> Anyway, I don’t suppose you could both call in sick on Monday?  We’ve got a gold mine here, if we can just milk it for all it’s worth.
> 
> Glen

 

“When was that actually sent?” Jack asked.

Sam licked her lips and said, “About fifteen minutes ago,” she said.  “So if he really meant a couple of minutes --”

“Am I understanding this correctly?” Teal’c asked.  “Has this ‘Glen’ made a film of what Major Grady has done to DanielJackson and sent it out to people in return for credit card payment?”

Carter nodded, looking utterly devastated.  She pulled up the live feed again.  Daniel appeared to be alone, still tied down to the bench, but they could hear sounds in the background like water.  She flipped through a few cameras, and there were an alarming number of cameras it seemed, revealing that this was a bathroom walled entirely with mirrors.  Now they could see Grady showering.

Jack stepped back out into the hall, remembering that he still had General Hammond on the phone.  “Sir?” he said.  “Sorry, but --”

“I understand,” Hammond said.  “Now, would you please fill me in?”

“The man who’s making the film has finished the editing and is sending out digital copies to paying customers as we speak.”

“My God!” Hammond breathed.  “That’s revolting.”

“He’s also giving advice on what Grady should do with Daniel.  With what he’s said in these two e-mails alone, we can bring him up on rape charges.”

“What’s being done to identify him?”

“I don’t know, sir.  I need to find out what Carter needs to know and if she needs any help.”

“What Carter needs is to get on base so she can start making phone calls from an official location,” she said suddenly from beside him.  “I’ve re-routed the live feed, and am copying all the relevant data onto CD so I can take it to the mountain.  I think we’d better leave everything else in situ, in case Grady comes back.  Though . . . what he’ll think if his neighbors describe who broke into his house is anybody’s guess.”

Jack grimaced.  “It can’t be helped.”  He spoke into the phone.  “Sir, can you get some MPs out here pronto, and I’ll stick around in case Grady comes back here.  God, I hope he . . .”  He had visions of Daniel’s broken and bloody corpse, because there was no way Grady could free him after this.  He had to be . . . but that Glen person had said something about them both calling in sick on Monday.  Grady wasn’t so nuts that he thought he could persuade Daniel to keep quiet about something like this was he?  “Have one of them drive my truck so I can come back when they get here.”

“Very well, Colonel.  I’ll see you at the mountain.”

Jack hung up and Sam looked at him with wrinkled brows.  “If you’re going to stay here, I might as well take the computer with me to the base.  It’s not like we’d really want a computer attached to a live feed like that in the open anyway.  I just thought we might want to avoid alarming him.”

“Carter, if he comes within a hundred feet of me, he’s not going to be alarmed, he’s going to be dead.”

She looked at him soberly and nodded.  “Point taken, sir, though we might have questions we’d want to ask.”

Jack narrowed his eyes, recognizing the truth in that.  “I guess you’d better make them quick, though, because I’m not letting that prick get away with this.”

She nodded and went back into the living room.

Alarms.  A sudden thought occurred to him and he followed her in.  “Carter?  Maybe you’d better not take that thing apart.  What if he’s got some kind of alarm set up to warn him if something happens to the machine?”

Her eyes widened and she swallowed.  “Right.  I’ll leave it up, then.”

* * *

Grady chained Daniel’s wrists together behind him and somehow shortened the chain between his legs so that he couldn’t shift them more than inches apart.  Grunting slightly with the effort, he threw Daniel over his shoulder and carried him into the main room again.

Fighting seemed pointless.  It would just end with more bruises than he had already and Grady angry as well as turned on.  Daniel wanted to scream and curse, but that would have much the same effect.  He wanted Jack and the others to come for him, but God only knew if any of them had the foggiest clue that Daniel was in trouble yet, and they’d never even guess what was happening to him.  Grady had seemed like a solid, ordinary soldier before, one with a bit of an attitude, granted.  Daniel flinched.  Now the bastard’s hand was caressing Daniel’s ass as he carried him.

The major put Daniel down on the table and started strapping him down again, perhaps guessing -- correctly -- that the current seeming docility would not last past the resumption of activities.  Daniel might be able to be rational when he wasn’t being actively raped, but . . .

Once he was tied down and spread-eagled, Grady walked up to the head of the table and looked down at Daniel.  He stroked a finger down Daniel’s cheek.  “You’re going to need a shave or I’ll get whisker burn,” Grady commented.

Daniel turned his head, but Grady turned it back.  “You don’t want to look at me?” he asked, his tone mild, but his eyes were looking a wee bit annoyed.

Daniel raised his eyebrows.  “What do you expect?” he asked.  The snap of irritation in Grady’s eyes told him that he’d said very much the wrong thing.  The man gazed at him through narrowed eyes for a long moment, then he turned away to the shelves on the wall.  “What do you want from me?” Daniel asked desperately.  “I didn’t ask for this, and you damned well know I don’t want it!”

“I know you do want it,” Grady said.  “And you did ask for it.  No man, no person gets into as many nasty sexual situations as you do without seeking it out on a subconscious level.”

“That’s ridiculous, Grady!” Daniel protested.  “I --”

“You should be quiet and listen to me,” Grady said, coming back to the table.  His voice was very calm, very patient, as if he was talking to a child.  “You don’t want to believe it, and I understand that.  But you will come to recognize your need for this --”

“Would you just shut up!” Daniel yelled, yanking on the chains above his head.  “I know what you’re talking about, you stupid prick!  I don’t have a need for ‘dangerous sex’ or whatever way you want to describe it.  I’ve just had incredibly bad luck.  I don’t know what you assholes see in me, anyway!”

Grady was looking down at him again, something black in his hands, exuding an air of condescending sympathy.  “It will take time for the lessons to sink in, but you will thank me.”  Daniel shook his head.  It was like talking to a brick wall.  “Think of the incredible stunts you’ve pulled.  This is much safer, you have to see --”  Daniel turned away again, not wanting to see that patronizing expression any longer.  Grady put out a finger and turned his face back, eyes narrowed again.

Daniel took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “Please, Grady . . .”  He bit his lip.  “Nate, please stop this.  I want you to stop this now.”

Grady smiled and stroked Daniel’s cheek, then walked around to stand above Daniel’s head.  Daniel looked up at the mirror and saw the major fiddling with whatever was in his hand.  “What you think you want and what you need are at odds in this situation, Daniel.  Now, since you don’t want to look at me, and you don’t want to look at yourself . . .”

Grady spread the object in his hands out above Daniel’s face and it resolved into a blindfold.

Daniel shook his head violently.  “No.  God, please no!  It’s bad enough that you keep taking my glasses, don’t do this!”  Grady draped the thick black pads over Daniel’s eyes, holding his head still in an iron grip as he lifted it and strapped the thing on, velvety blackness taking over his vision.  “Please!” Daniel begged, panic suffusing him.  “Grady?  Please?”

The major’s only answer was a low, malicious chuckle.  Then he stopped touching Daniel and silence fell over the room.  The plush carpet and the man’s military training meant that he could move without alerting Daniel to his exact location.

“Grady?”  Daniel could hear his voice breaking.  “Don’t do this.”

A hand on his foot made him start violently.  “Don’t worry, Daniel,” Grady said, gently stroking the skin on Daniel’s foot.  “You’re perfectly safe.”  He walked around, stroking up Daniel’s right leg, across his hip and up his abdomen and chest, coming to rest on his neck just below his chin.  “You’re in no real danger.”  Daniel’s breath was coming in short gasps, and he tried to control it.  Grady caressed his face and stroked his hair in what was clearly meant to be a comforting fashion, but the gesture and the words failed to ease Daniel’s anxiety in any way.  “Everything will be fine and more than fine very soon, beautiful.”  The major’s hand was on his cheek and Daniel could feel the movement in the changing angle of his palm as Grady bent down.  Warm breath touched his lips.  “Now, I’ve got to go make us dinner.  Any preferences?”

“Jack makes a mean enchilada casserole,” Daniel said flippantly, then bit his lip, wondering if Grady’s eyes were going dark with anger or if he was amused.  He hated not being able to see.  His heart was beating very hard, and the darkness seemed to press in against him.

Grady laughed.  “Not an option, beautiful.”  His lips brushed Daniel’s as he spoke, then pressed firmly down in an open mouthed kiss.  His tongue teased Daniel’s lips apart and forced its way between them, darting in to taste Daniel’s teeth.

Unwillingly, Daniel relaxed his jaw, not waiting for Grady to make his threat.  The man could walk away and bring anything back with him and Daniel wouldn’t be able to tell what it was until Grady told him or it touched him.  Even then it might be difficult, depending on the object.  It was amazing how different perfectly ordinary things felt in the dark.  Visions began to parade in Daniel’s mind of things Grady could do to him, and he wouldn’t know they were coming until . . . until . . .

His heart was beginning to race, but he couldn’t control his thoughts.

After a short exploration, Grady drew back a ways and said, “I have a deal to suggest.”

Daniel clenched his teeth, trying to control himself.  He took a deep breath.  “A deal?” he asked, gulping.

“I’ll take the blindfold off for a while if you kiss me back.”


	59. Chapter 59

Jack had seen an episode of Star Trek where Kirk and some gorgeous woman were watching people move around on a video screen, and she could make people disappear by zeroing in on them and pushing a button.  Right now he wanted that button.

The games the bastard was playing . . .  Jack had been watching, unable to keep away from the live feed.  It had a horrifying draw to it, like picking at a scab or poking at a sore tooth.  He knew he couldn’t help Daniel, he knew that, but he needed to keep an eye on what was happening in case the bastard moved him, or did something that upped the urgency of the search even higher, though Jack wasn’t sure that was possible.

He had watched and listened, ready to spit nails, as Grady explained his reasoning to Daniel.  It made so much sense, after all, Daniel _needed_ to be raped.  Anger surged through him with no outlet, but long years of service and covert ops training allowed him to store it away.  He’d pay for it later, but he didn’t have time for it now.

Then Grady had put the blindfold on him and started playing with Daniel’s mind.  From the moment those pads blocked off the light, Jack could see the tension in Daniel’s body rise.  He was practically vibrating, like a string on a violin.

Then the bastard had kissed him, and even though it was the first time Jack had seen it, he could guess that it wasn’t the first time it had happened from Daniel’s response.  There had been a distinct pause, a look of resignation had crossed his face, then he had allowed it to happen.

But that ‘deal’ . . .  Jack wanted to squeeze Grady’s neck till things popped squishily.  He’d observed how much Grady had gotten off on Daniel begging for the blindfold’s removal, now to ask him . . . it was beyond vile on into depraved.

He could see from the tension in Daniel’s muscles that he was on the verge of panic, but the archeologist lay there for a long moment, clearly uncertain what to do, how far he was willing to go to get rid of the blindfold.  What thoughts were going through Daniel’s head?

Jack thought he knew what he’d do in a similar circumstance, but he wasn’t really sure that Daniel should tell Grady to go fuck himself.  Under the circumstances that seemed an iffy choice at best.  Daniel was breathing very slowly, and he licked his lips.

“I don’t know if I can,” he said, finally.

Grady smiled, and it was a shit-eating grin if Jack ever saw one.  He clearly thought he’d scored a major coup.  His voice was gentle when he spoke.  “All you have to do is try, beautiful.”

Then he bent in again, obscuring Daniel’s face.

* * *

Daniel felt like a coward, but he couldn’t handle having the blindfold on.  It was making him hyper-alert, and it felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest.  Grady’s lips closed over his and Daniel opened his mouth to the tongue that invaded.  It wasn’t as if he’d never kissed anyone before, he reasoned.  He knew how.  He just now had to try and do it with Grady.

Telling himself that he was merely participating in a bizarre culture he’d found himself embroiled in helped a little, and he got his tongue moving.  Grady’s eagerness increased, making it hard for Daniel to keep up.

His hands shifted down to Daniel’s chest, where the thumbs began to circle around Daniel’s nipples.  God damn it, he should have said no and put up with the blindfold.  Grady was getting excited.  His hands were now pulling on Daniel’s nipples, twisting and teasing them.  Daniel stopped trying to kiss, stopped reacting altogether in the hopes that Grady would stop.

After a moment, Grady drew back and said, “The longer you play, the longer the blindfold stays off.”  His voice was teasing, mischievous, but Daniel wanted to kill him.  Making deals with the devil was never a good idea.  The rules shift as you go.

Daniel didn’t reply since none of the words he could think of to say were polite and most of them would be incomprehensible to his auditor.  Grady waited for a moment then shifted up onto the table so that he was kneeling across Daniel.  The bathrobe had disappeared at some point, and Daniel could feel an erect penis against his abdomen.

Grady’s mouth closed over his again, and Daniel forced himself to pretend that what he was doing didn’t matter, that it made no difference as he moved his tongue in time with Grady’s.  He wanted to throw up, and the blindfold was getting soggy.  An ironic thought moved in his mind.  Grady would be disappointed to have missed the tears.

* * *

Bastard.  Son of bitch.  Slimeball.  Jack’s fists were clenched hard as he saw the muscles in Daniel’s neck tighten in that way that said he was being pushed to the edge of his limits.  Jack got explosively to his feet, wishing he could break something useful.  Like Grady’s neck.  Or his kneecaps.  Or his teeth, which Daniel was experiencing at far too close a range.

He called the mountain and got a list of Grady’s teammates, their phone numbers, emergency phone numbers and addresses e-mailed to Grady’s computer.  As he printed out the list, there was a knock at the door and Jack went to peer out the front curtains.  Major Thompson and Captain Patel were standing on the step.  He opened the door and ushered them into the entry hall.

He shook his head to stop the standard greetings and shut the door.  “What have you been told?”

“That Dr. Jackson has been kidnapped and is in serious danger, and that our task would be explained when we arrived, colonel,” Thompson said.

Jack grimaced.  “Well, that’s a bit of a simplification.  Daniel was kidnapped by Major Nathaniel Grady of SG-6.”

Both men’s eyes widened.  “Is that why we’re here?” Patel asked.  “I thought Grady must be helping or something.”

Grady’s voice, a little distorted by the computer speakers, came loudly from the living room.  “God, you’re hot.”

Both men jumped.  “What’s that?”

Jack grimaced and held up a hand.  “That needs to be explained before it’s seen.  Evidently, Major Grady has some kind of an obsession with --”

“Get off me, you bastard!” Daniel yelled, and Jack hastily turned back to the living room.

Grady had lifted Daniel’s legs somehow over his shoulders and, from the evidence, had just thrust into his ass.  The chains were dangling off Daniel’s ankles, considerably looser than they’d been earlier.  Daniel was still blindfolded, and his fists were clenched.  Jack noticed bandages on his wrists for the first time and wondered what the hell had happened there.

Both the men had entered the room behind him and Jack could hear their shocked gasps as they took in the activity on the screen.

“You’re mine, Daniel, all mine!” Grady growled, fucking him hard.  “The sooner you accept that the better off you’ll be.”

“What the hell is going on?” Thompson demanded.

“Grady has an obsession with Daniel, and has had him for hours.  I’m not sure when he grabbed him, but he was expected at the mountain between nine and ten o’clock this morning and he never showed.”

Patel was shaking his head, obviously appalled.  “I never -- I’ve eaten dinner here.”

Jack shrugged.  “I’ve read that Ted Bundy could be a real sweetheart to people who weren’t his victims.”  He looked away from the screen.  “So, were you and Grady friends?”

“No, it was . . . he had a bunch of us over to talk about a softball league.  One of the many failed attempts.”

“I don’t suppose he mentioned anyone named Glen, did he?”

Patel shook his head, eyes fixed to the screen.  “Where the hell are they?”

“We don’t know,” Jack said, grimacing.  “If we did, do you think I’d be watching this?”

“No, I think we might be watching you kill that bastard,” Thompson said, his face white.  “My God, I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”

“Well, join the club,” Jack said.  He winced at a particularly unhappy sound from Daniel.  “I’m going to go have a chat with each of his teammates.  In the meantime, someone needs to monitor this feed --”

“Feed?” Patel asked.

“It’s live,” Jack said.  “It’s happening right now.”  Thompson had clearly realized this already, but Patel grew paler at Jack’s words.  “So, someone needs to monitor it, in case something drastic changes, like he goes to move Daniel or something.”  He reached out and clicked, changing the angle from overhead to a side view.  “These two buttons shift the view from camera to camera.  I think there might be as many as fifty or sixty of the damned things, not all in this room.”  He glanced back at the screen and winced again.  Grady was clearly shooting his load, and the sight brought back memories that Jack would as soon had stayed buried.

“Of course, sir.”  Thompson said.  Patel seemed incapable of speech.

“And it’s always possible that Grady will come back here for some reason, leaving Daniel where he is, so we need someone here to arrest him if that happens.  Major Carter is going to trace the feed, I’m going to go interview his teammates --”

“Has anyone gone through his financial files?” Thompson asked.  “Or anything?”

“Go for it,” Jack said.  “One of you brought my truck, right?”  Patel wordlessly held out the keys.  “And I guess I don’t need to say that this --”  He gestured at the computer screen where Grady was still fucking Daniel.  He averted his eyes.  “Had better stay confidential.  I will not be taking names if I have to deal with gossip on this one.”

Thompson nodded and Patel just looked like he felt sick.  Jack gave them a tight grin and left, heading for the nearest one of Grady’s teammates, who also happened to be his commander, Colonel Miller.

Miller was in his front yard playing tag with his youngest son and daughter.  An older daughter was sitting on the porch with a friend.  Jack had seen Miller’s kids at base barbecues, and it seemed very odd to be bringing news like this to a house that contained so many children.

The colonel looked up to see Jack climbing out of his truck, and the good humored laugh fell off his face.  The boy, who was all of ten or so, said, “Dad, what is it?”

“Colonel O’Neill,” Miller said.  “You’ve met him, Tommy, Cindy.”  Jack walked up and smiled down at the kids.  “Can I help you, colonel?”

“We need to talk,” Jack said, giving Miller a serious look.

“Do I need to come in?”

“Not yet, though it may come to that,” Jack said.  “Can we find someplace private?”  The little girl had run inside and now Miller’s wife was coming out the front door.  “I mean really private, Roger.”

Marge walked up.  “Can you come inside for a drink, Jack?” she asked.

“Actually, Marge, this is business related.”

“Why don’t we go for a ride in your truck, Jack?” Miller suggested.  “Marge, I’ll give you a call if I need to go in to work.”  Her face set with worry, she nodded and Jack unlocked the truck.  When they were underway, Miller said, “What’s up?  Has something gone wrong on base?”

Jack took a deep breath as he turned off Miller’s street.  “No, not on base.  I have some questions to ask before I give you any details, okay?”

“Sure,” Miller replied.

“Has Nate Grady ever mentioned a man named Glen?”

Miller thought quietly for a moment then said, “I don’t believe so.  I’ve known him for two years now, though, so if it had been in passing, I might not remember.  Why?”

“Has he ever said anything that suggested to you that he possessed or controlled property other than his house?”

There was another silence while Miller considered this question.  “I’m not sure.  He and Pilkins were discussing remodeling jobs for a while a few months back, and he was giving her advice on what not to do with mirror panels.  He said he’d done a lot of work remodeling a basement recently, some kind of rumpus room and bathroom set up, I don’t know what all.  I just know his basement isn’t anything like that large.  I figured he must have been helping a friend.  That could be . . . what’s going on, Jack?”

“Just one more question.  Has he ever said anything to you or in your presence that would suggest an interest beyond the appropriate in Dr. Jackson?”

Miller shook his head.  “Beyond the appropriate?  I don’t think I quite get your meaning, Jack.  Nothing springs to mind.  I know he thought that the doc needed a keeper, but . . .”  He paused.  “I will say that he’s been a little odd this past couple of weeks.  And I still don’t know what was up with him during that mission briefing.  I could see you were about to come unglued, but I think he must have been letting his mind wander or something.”  Miller looked at him and he must have seen something in Jack’s expression.  “But you think it’s something more,” he said.

Jack sighed.  “I have to tell you something that you’re not going to like, Roger,” Jack said.  “Grady has . . . well, he’s gone off the deep end in a pretty big way.”  He took a deep breath.  “Sometime this morning, we think, we’re not sure of the exact time, he abducted Daniel.”

“What?!!”  Miller turned sideways in his seat.  “You’re certain?”

“Absolutely.”  Jack grimaced and pulled over to the side of the street by a park.  Shutting the engine off, he turned towards the other man.  “He’s -- well, he’s been hiding a secret life from all of us.  He --”  Jack looked down at his hands.  “He’s into . . . God, I don’t know how to say this.  He’s been stalking Daniel, I don’t know for how long, but we found photos in his locker at the base.  And --”  Jack gulped, realizing abruptly how it must seem to Miller, Grady’s commanding officer, to be hearing this from Daniel’s commanding officer.  “Look, no one suspected anything.  I mean, the most I suspected was that he had a crappy attitude towards Daniel, and that wouldn’t be new.”

Miller nodded.  “Some people can’t see beyond the glasses and the vocabulary.  What’s going on?”

Jack took a deep breath.  “Grady is apparently into making gay porn, and it seems that he’s been doing it for a while now.  He’s got some guy who does the editing, and the marketing, I’d guess, from the e-mails we found.”

“Glen?” Miller asked.  His voice was calm but his eyes were wide.  Jack nodded.  “This is pretty damned incredible, Jack.”

“I know.  But . . . damn it, he has a live feed in his house from wherever it is he’s holding Daniel, and I’ve seen what he’s doing.  There’s no doubting it, Roger.  He’s –”

“You’re telling me that Nate is having sex with Dr. Jackson?” Miller said.

“I’m telling you that Grady is raping Daniel,” Jack said savagely.  “There’s no doubt about that, either.  He’s got him tied up at all times, and Daniel’s made it pretty evident he doesn’t want what’s happening.”

“God, Jack, I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise,” Miller said.  “It’s just – he’s got a good game face, I guess.  I never would have pegged him.”

“He’s got a damned good game face,” Jack said.  “Look, you’ve helped a little.  It sounds like the basement he was talking about is the one he’s keeping Daniel in.  There are . . . a lot of mirrors.”  Miller blanched slightly.  “Does Grady have any close friends in your unit?”

“Not close friends.  I think he and Smith go out for drinks sometimes.”

“Thanks.”

“What’s being done?” Miller asked.

“Carter’s got a tech team working on tracing the live feed, and there are MPs at his house looking into his financial records to see what they can find.  And I’m going to see Lt. Smith next.”

“I’ve got to go in,” Miller said.  “I don’t think I can be normal around Marge and the kids right now.  Maybe I can help somehow.”

Jack nodded and started the truck up.  He drove Miller back to his house.  Just before he let him out, Jack said, “You know that e-mail I sent.”  Miller nodded.  “This goes double.  You even hear anyone hint about it, I want to know as soon as it happens.”

“Got it, Jack.  I -- I handled anyone I heard saying shit, you know.  I don’t always see eye to eye with Dr. Jackson, but we all owe our lives to that man, many times over.  He sure as hell doesn’t deserve this.”

Jack pulled away from the curb, reflecting that Grady had a lot to answer for.  Miller was going to beat himself up over this, and it wasn’t his fault.  Maybe there were signs he should have seen, but for Grady to get into the SGC in the first place he must have had a damned good cover.  If he fooled the security boys, Miller had nothing to feel guilty about.  Maybe Jack could get Hammond to point that out to him later.

Smith wasn’t home, but Jack got him on his cell phone.  He was at a movie, so Jack told him that he’d have to skip the rest of the film and meet him in the parking lot.  He picked up the lieutenant and drove him to a nearby doctor’s office parking lot that was empty this late on a Saturday.

“Sir, what’s going on?” Smith asked nervously.

Jack put the same questions to him that he’d put to Miller.  Smith shook his head to the first two and then looked puzzled by the last.  “Why are you asking, sir?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jack said.  “I need you to be honest, though.”

“Well, he seems to think that Dr. Jackson takes too many risks, sir.  He said something once about someone needing to give Dr. Jackson lessons in not getting in trouble.”  Smith shrugged.  “I said I thought that all of SG-1 got into trouble a lot, that it was the nature of your type of assignments.  I mean, you guys get the trouble spots, no two ways about it.”

“I see,” Jack said, impressed by the young man’s straightforwardness.  “Well, I’m going to tell you this so you have a little forewarning, because I don’t doubt some version of it will be making the rounds before long.  Grady has been stalking Dr. Jackson, and today he kidnapped him for sexual purposes.  We haven’t found Dr. Jackson, yet, but we’re working on it.”

Smith’s eye had grown rounder as Jack spoke.  “God, I hope so.  Nate -- I wouldn’t have thought Nate would do something like that.”

“No one would have,” Jack said.  “I want you to do me a favor, lieutenant, though.  If anyone asks you for details, and they probably will, direct them to either me or General Hammond.  Don’t try to answer their questions, don’t confirm anything.”

Smith nodded.  “Yes sir.  I mean, no sir.”

Jack took him back to his car and headed on to the next stop on his itinerary.


	60. Chapter 60

Daniel lay still on the bed.  The blindfold had been removed, he’d had his third shower in less than twelve hours, and now he lay in the bed, chained to the bedposts.  The bonds were fairly loose, compared to what he’d suffered most often in Grady’s custody.  The cuffs themselves were tight around Daniel’s wrists and ankles, but the chains that connected him to the bedposts were longer, allowing him some freedom of movement.

Grady had gone to make dinner, leaving Daniel alone in the bed.  After the last rape, with the blindfold still on, and Daniel’s panicked response, Grady had become very tender.  He’d removed the vision-deadening pads of fabric and kissed Daniel’s weeping eyes as he lay there, heart pounding and body shaking.

Binding him gently, the major had carried Daniel into the bathroom and cleaned him up, an experience that was startlingly devoid of serious sexual assault.  His hands had been all over Daniel’s body as he washed him, but the distinct lack of penetrative sex had been a distinct relief when he was done.

Daniel had been silent, still shaking, all words driven out of him by that latest assault to his body and spirit.  Now, with the freedom to move, he lay unmoving, still naked but covered by a blanket.

He thought it might have been a tactical error, giving in on the kissing to get rid of the blindfold.  It set the stage both in Grady’s mind and in Daniel’s for future surrenders.  Daniel in no way confused it with any meaningful concession.  He’d been under extreme duress.  Nevertheless, Grady had mistaken it for a sign that Daniel was weakening, and he would try to build from it.

Of course, it did give Grady something to gloat over, and it might put off further attempts to push him into more significant actions.  That sense of triumph could work to Daniel’s advantage if he could manage it.  He just didn’t know if he could do it.

He wished he had any idea at all how much time had passed.  There wasn’t a clock in this place, and he hadn’t seen his watch since losing consciousness that morning.  It suddenly occurred to him that it must have been removed before Grady had tied him up.

He had no idea how long he’d been unconscious in his car, he had no clue how long they’d slept after lunch, but it had to be evening by now.  The lack of time references was probably intentional, part of a strategy to disorient him, but when Grady came back he was going to ask.

Had anyone worked out that he was missing yet?  Were they looking?  Had Grady left any hints at all of what he was doing, of where he’d taken Daniel?  Or would Monday come before anyone figured out there was a problem?

Jack could have been delayed in Washington.  Tony could have assumed that Daniel had found something better to do with his weekend.  Sam and Teal’c probably assumed they’d see him on base, but it might not occur to either of them to worry if they didn’t.  Or they might wonder and call -- and worry when they didn’t get hold of him, but there had been no signs of trouble.  They’d probably just think he was being a flake, wandering off and not calling anyone to tell them where he was.  They had no reason to get too worried, unless they decided that Daniel was a danger to himself.  If they thought that, though, he had no doubt that Jack would have suggested someone stay with him.

He suddenly wished Jack had been that worried.  If Teal’c had been with him at Jack’s house, Grady wouldn’t have dared to touch him.  Daniel would have chafed at the implied insult of the babysitter, but he would not now be in this mess.  Of course, Grady might just have waited for his next good opportunity.  There was a charming thought.  How long would it have taken?  How long would Grady have continued working and watching?  How long would Daniel have kept on along his normal activities, totally unaware of the threat that was stalking him?  He would have seen Grady once or twice a week, not knowing what he was planning.

Daniel felt his stomach turn over.  How long had that been happening anyway?  A little over a week ago, he’d found Grady standing behind him and gotten a weird vibe from him.  At the time, he’d put it down to paranoia, but had there been something more, something that he should have noticed?

His heart was speeding up again.  His thoughts were racing on, despite his physical exhaustion.  Anxiety did this to him sometimes.  Ordinarily he could express it by frenetic activity, but tied down like this, all he could do was think himself into a swivet.

He took a deep breath and tried to still his mind for meditation, but he couldn’t.  His ears were listening intently to the silent space around him for the first hint that Grady was returning.  Or that rescue was coming.  What was Jack doing right now?  Was he stuck in a hotel room, going crazy because he was going to have to go to more damned hearings on Monday?  Was he on a plane still?  Was he out there somewhere looking for Daniel?  Was he upstairs right now, being bullshitted by Grady?

That image made him feel physically sick.  Grady had fooled them all, even the military, into thinking he was just some ordinary soldier with good skills and the right to a top security clearance.  That meant he was damned good at tricking people.  What if Jack came here, somehow followed some form of tracks, and Grady convinced him that he was on the wrong path?  It might make Grady panic.

That was the worst thing, knowing that if Grady panicked and thought something was going to happen, his best bet would be to kill Daniel, hide the body and purge his computers of all the images.  Assuming there really were cameras and that wasn’t just a ploy to freak Daniel out.

And if Grady panicked, the first thing Daniel might know about it was when he came down and killed him.  Since he was bound to come down again sooner or later, that only served to make Daniel more nervous.

His thoughts went round in apprehensive circles, unchecked despite his best efforts, and making him more and more agitated.  He rolled over and saw his glasses on the bedside table.  They were familiar, comforting, and out of easy reach.  Shifting himself upwards on the bed, he reached out with his near hand.  It required a bit of strain, which made his wrists ache again, but he managed to obtain his goal.  Putting them on, he rolled back onto his back and sighed.  It helped a little.  Clothes would help more.  Jack coming in the door with the keys to the cuffs on Daniel’s wrists would be great.

The door at the top of the steps opened, and Daniel stiffened.  Grady was coming down.  Or maybe it was rescue.  The latter didn’t seem likely, since rescuers would probably be calling his name by now.  He gulped and waited.  There was movement in the outer room, and one of the doors opened and closed again.  More silence.  Subjective hours of silence passed over the next few minutes.

A door opened again and he heard footsteps on the stairs, then the upper door opened and closed.  Grady hadn’t even come into the bedroom.  Daniel let his breath out slowly.  He must be prepping for dinner.  Daniel tried to return his breathing to normal, but the door upstairs opened and closed again.  The footsteps came downstairs and then the door to the bedroom opened.  Daniel turned his head to see Grady coming towards him with something in his hands.  The major was wearing tan slacks and a forest green button down shirt with a dark tie.  If he’d showed up looking like that at work, people would have asked him if he had a hot date.

“What now?” Daniel asked hesitantly.

“Now we have dinner,” Grady said.  “I brought you something to wear.”

Daniel looked at the blue stuff in the man’s hands nervously.  “What?”

Grady set the folded fabric on the bed and sat down next to Daniel’s right hip.  He loosened the chains and said, “Sit up.”

Daniel did as he was told, nervously, looking at the pile of fabric.  It looked like . . . Grady picked up the pajama top and shook it out.  It was of blue silk, and Daniel blinked at it.  Unbuttoning it, Grady set it down across his lap and then reached out to unlock the left one of Daniel’s wrist cuffs.   He slipped the sleeve of the pajama top over Daniel’s arm, re-fastened the cuff, then followed suit with the other arm.  He leaned back and let Daniel button it himself.

“Good,” Grady said.  “Now, lay back on the bed.”

“Why?” Daniel asked.

“Don’t ask questions, beautiful, just do as you’re told.”  Daniel closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  Then he lay back.  Grady tightened the chains again and then put the pajama pants on Daniel’s legs and pulled them up.  It was very odd, very uncomfortable, having the bastard dressing him, but at least he was covered.  “Now, we’re going into the dining room,” Grady said.  Swiftly and with great gentleness, he replaced the hobbles on Daniels ankles, then bound Daniel’s arms together in the front.  He helped Daniel sit up on the edge of the bed and pulled him to his feet, keeping a hand under Daniel’s left arm all the time.

Daniel decided to be cooperative.  It wasn’t as if being uncooperative would gain him anything at the moment.  If he tried to run, he’d fall face first on the floor, and if Grady was to be believed, the door at the top of the stairs was locked in any case.

They went into the dining room and Daniel blinked at the sight that met his eyes.  The table was now covered with a white cloth, and there were a pair of elegant silver candlesticks in the center.  Between them was a bud vase with a single red rose.  The ‘date’ quality of Grady’s clothes suddenly became clear to Daniel, as did the fact that Grady was being so solicitous of him.  This was meant to be a romantic dinner, a notion that Daniel, bound hand and foot, found utterly baffling.  The man had raped him at least four times today, and had forced himself on him in other ways.  Now he wanted to have a dinner date?

Grady guided him to the chair he’d occupied earlier and sat him down, tucking his ankle chains into whatever had held them at lunchtime.  Then he busied himself with something behind the chair, something that clinked and clanked ever so slightly and made Daniel extremely nervous.  After a few moments, Grady came round the front of the chair, bringing out a chain that he slipped through a ring on the left side of the chair.  He slipped another length of chain through a ring on the other side of the chair, then attached manacles to each end.  Daniel had wondered how he was supposed to eat with his arms bound in front of him.  Grady unbound his wrists, holding them in one hand, and snapped cuffs around them connecting Daniel to the chair.  He stepped back and Daniel reached out tentatively, testing his limits.  This day was incredibly surreal.  He craned his neck around the back of the chair and saw the remaining chain back there.  It was a goodly length, but he was now bound firmly to this heavy chair.  Grady stroked Daniel’s head, running his fingers through his hair, then went to the sideboard.  Daniel wet his lips anxiously, watching him.

“You weren’t very helpful in telling me what you wanted to eat, beautiful,” Grady said, picking up a cover and lifting the plates beneath.  “I’m not cordon bleu or anything, but I do okay.  I hope you enjoy it,” he added, depositing a plate in front of Daniel.

Daniel looked down.  It was chicken breast stuffed with spiced ricotta cheese under marinara sauce.  There were sautéed vegetables on the side and a crisp roll dripping with butter.  It smelled great, and Daniel could feel his mouth water, but his stomach was still roiling a little.  Grady placed a similar plate at his own place, then poured them each a glass of white wine and sat down.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Grady asked after a long moment.

“I wasn’t sure if you were ready,” Daniel said, his voice breaking slightly.

“Eat up,” Grady said.  Daniel reached out and took the roll in his hands, breaking it and eating, hoping the bread would calm his gut.  “I think we’ve both had enough activity for today,” Grady went on.  “We’ll have a quiet night so we can have more fun tomorrow.”

Daniel blinked and chewed.  This was interesting news.  No more sex tonight.  But . . . “What time is it, anyway?”

“It’s dark outside,” Grady said, but that was pretty limited help.  It was summer, though, so that meant it had to be past eight or nine at night.  He’d been in Grady’s hands for more than twelve hours now, then.

The bread was settling his stomach, so Daniel put down the roll and cut into the chicken.

Grady cleared his throat.  “So, I read some archeology stuff, trying to understand more of what you do.”

Daniel blinked.  Chewing and swallowing his bite of chicken gave him a few moments to consider what to say.  He had to keep this conversation going.  He had to keep Grady interested and happy with him.  “Really?  What did you read?”

“ _Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection_ by Wallis Budge,” Grady said, sounding pleased with himself.

Daniel choked on his chicken.  “You read Budge?  God, Grady, you could have chosen worse, but not by much.  You’d go farther with an Eyewitness Book.”  Then he felt himself go very still.  Once again he’d put his foot in it.  Slowly he looked up to see what Grady’s expression was.

The man looked puzzled.  “What would you recommend?” he asked, actually seeming interested.

Daniel felt his shoulder muscles unknot with relief that he hadn’t just managed to piss Grady off.  “Well, Budge isn’t really writing about archeology.  What is it you want to know about?  Egyptology or the nuts and bolts of archeology?  They aren’t the same thing.”

Grady was silent for a moment.  “Kind of like reading a history of the Cubs doesn’t tell you all that much about the sport in general?” he asked.

Could this get any more bizarre?  But Grady was calm, he was encouraging this conversation, and it wasn’t sex.  Daniel figured he ought to play along, see how long he could keep things on this level.  He shook his head.  “No, actually it’s more like reading a history of the Cubs doesn’t give you any understanding of how box scores record the important statistics of baseball.”

“You know baseball?” Grady asked, sounding startled.

Daniel shrugged.  “Only insofar as a year of living with a rabid baseball fan forced me to learn a bit about the sport.  It’s really not my thing.  The point is that archeology is a general study of all the past while Egyptology focuses rather firmly on a specific time frame and place.”

“I see,” Grady said.  “But I thought you were pretty focused on Egyptology.”

Was Grady looking into his history, trying to get to know him . . . what for?  This was getting creepy, but they were talking.  Just talking.  And talking was better than the alternatives.

“I have focused on Egyptology,” Daniel said.  “But never exclusively.  My research was on the cross-pollination of cultures.”

“What does that mean exactly?” Grady asked.

Daniel took a deep breath and launched into an explanation, now leavened with the knowledge that it was the Goa’uld who had done the cross-pollinating.  Grady seemed very interested, but it was that kind of focus that he’d seen in the faces of men on their first dates.  The moment when they seemed to be trying to convince the girl that she was the only thing of interest in the world to them.  He must be seeing things, misinterpreting things.  He didn’t want to imagine the possible reasons for that, but it was hard not to.

The lecture and Grady’s questions took them through the meal.  For dessert they had a luscious chocolate mousse.

Then Grady took the plates away, leaving Daniel in the dining room wondering what could happen next.


	61. Chapter 61

Jack walked into Grady’s house.  His visit to Pilkins had been swift, and she had been horrified by the news.  He gathered she’d been trying to fix Grady up with a friend of hers, but that it had never really come through.

In the living room he found Patel sitting on the floor surrounded by piles of papers.  The captain looked up and said, “The jackass doesn’t file anything!  He keeps all his bills in piles!  Random piles!”

“Oh,” Jack said.  “Do you need someone to help out?”

“It wouldn’t hurt.  I found two boxes downstairs, and I haven’t even begun to get them sorted.”

He turned to Thompson who was sitting monitoring the live feed.  He had four cameras up at once – a feat it would never have occurred to Jack to attempt – one in each of the rooms.  Daniel was sitting alone in the dining room, bound to a chair but dressed, at a table that was clearly set for a romantic meal.  Grady was nowhere to be seen.  “What’s been happening?” he asked.

“You want a summary or a detailed description?” Thompson asked, his voice detached.  Jack felt a little stir of anger at the man until he turned.  His eyes were haunted.

“Summary.”

“Major Grady finished shortly after you left, then took Dr. Jackson into the bathroom where he strung him up and showered him.  Dr. Jackson was pretty freaked out.  I’ve never . . .”  He gulped and paused for a moment.  “Then Grady took him and put him in a bed, chained him loosely, covered him up and went to go make dinner.”  Jack glanced at his watch.  It was closing on ten o’clock.  “He came back and put Daniel in that pair of pajamas and they had a very civilized dinner while Dr. Jackson played along with him.  It’s really very disturbing, sir.  It’s clear that Major Grady has some kind of a fantasy relationship built up with Dr. Jackson.  I mean, look.”  He pointed at the screen.  “They had candles and roses and a fancy dinner while they talked about Dr. Jackson’s work.”

“How long has he been alone?”

“About ten minutes now.”

The computer chimed in with “You have mail.”

Thompson switched to Outlook and opened the e-mail.  It was from Glen.

 

> This is turning out to be a blockbuster.  I’ve already sent out seven hundred digital copies of Beautiful Part 1, and three hundred of Part 2.  That bathroom stuff is absolute dynamite.  Mirror stuff goes over well, standing stuff goes over well, and there have been a lot of comments about how hot it is that you were watching him the whole time.  The response is phenomenal.  He’s gorgeous, you’re not so bad yourself, and he’s pure gold when it comes to reacting.
> 
> I’ve got that part where you made him kiss you edited and the teaser’s out.  I can tell you, that one’s going to sell better than the other two.  Are you sure you can’t call in sick for him?  I mean, Nate, we could retire on him.  Every one of these is going for double our normal rate.  The electricity is just crackling between the two of you, and it’s catching, I swear.  I’ve got stacks of VCDs all around me and I’m not going to be able to keep up with the demand.  I used that one shot as the cover, like you said, and I think you’re right.  It’s perfect.
> 
> Now can you get a little more into the B&D stuff?  I mean, I know it’s not quite your thing, but we agreed that’s how it would be billed, and it’s not really happening.  Just a little, to placate the ones who want to see him on his knees in front of you.  A spanking?  God, I’d love to see that perfect ass reddened from your hand, Nate.
> 
> Maybe if you threaten him with something else you can get him to suck you off.  That would go well, and I’m sure you wouldn’t mind.
> 
> Dinner was frankly boring.  What are you trying to do, seduce him?  I can’t use a second of that, and you know the time you have is limited.  I guess I get why you’re taking the rest of the night off.  He’s a virgin and all, but you need to get with it tomorrow.  Get a little harder with him, like you were at first before you realized he wasn’t already into this.
> 
> Glen

 

Jack wanted to find this Glen guy and wring his neck.  It was no satisfaction to know that when they did find him he was going to jail.  Prison seemed too minor for someone who made such a cheerful and brash living off the misery of others.

Thompson looked furious.  Patel had gotten to his feet and walked over to stand behind them, reading over his superior’s shoulder.  “That’s sick,” he said.

Jack nodded and pulled out his phone as Thompson went back to watching Daniel sit alone in the dining room, unaware of the bastards plotting his fate.

“Carter,” said a harried-sounding voice.

“Sam, I’ve got nothing much for you.  Are you getting the e-mails from Glen still?”

“No, sir, I forgot to set up that forwarding.”

Thompson was looking at him curiously and he shook his head.  “Should I forward it to her?” the Major asked.

Jack nodded.  “Major Thompson is forwarding the most recent one to you.”

“Good.  I’ve got one of our newer civilian consultants out at the ISPs finding out what he can.  Grady’s been pretty damned canny setting things up, I guess.  Felger’s getting places I never could, though, so I’ve just been monitoring Daniel.”

“We have Thompson on that here, too,” he said.

“I know, we’ve been coordinating bathroom breaks so our assistants could keep working on their own tasks.  Sir, you didn’t find out anything from Grady’s teammates?”

“Not much.  None of them has ever heard of Glen, and they all thought he was straight as an arrow, in all senses of the word.  Sheila Pilkins was even trying to set him up with a friend of hers.”

“Hell,” Carter said.  “I don’t know what to – hang on a minute, I’ve got a call coming in from Felger.”

Jack waited on pins and needles, but before Carter came back, he heard the computer speak again.  “You have mail.”

He turned back as Thompson pulled the e-mail up.  “This looks like it’s a direct reply to something Grady sent him,” the major said.  “Let me see, he might have included Grady’s message at the bottom.  He scrolled the message down to the bottom.  “Bingo.  We should probably read this first.”

“Right,” Jack said and he yanked a chair up to sit down beside Thompson.

 

> Glen,
> 
> I’m glad it’s selling so well, but that isn’t and never was my primary motivation in doing this.  Daniel needs some help dealing with his sexual danger fetish, and that’s what this is about.  The selling just adds a bit of spice.  And the funds to keep this little place private.
> 
> No, I can’t call in sick for him.  His CO is coming back on Monday, and if Daniel isn’t there, he’ll raise all kinds of stink.  I have to get Daniel back home before his CO returns from DC or we’ll be in a mess of trouble.  Stop asking, I want to do it but it’s not an option.
> 
> Jack fumed silently.  Grady really did think he could persuade Daniel to keep this to himself, to hide this from Jack.  Then he considered the possible array of threats Grady held over him.  Would Daniel try to hide it?  They weren’t going to get an opportunity to find out, but Jack really didn’t think so.  Daniel was stubborn and proud, and he wouldn’t allow himself to be victimized like that.
> 
> He shook his head and kept reading.
> 
> I’ve already got some light B&D stuff planned, okay?  No, I’m not going to spank him.  I don’t think he’d react well, and this isn’t about what will sell, or what you can whack yourself off to in your computer room.  And as far as him sucking me off, I don’t think he’s quite ready to participate that fully, though, God, I can’t wait till he is.  That one kiss was enough to make me go off like a rocket, but I screwed up pretty bad there.  He was nearly having a heart attack when I stopped.  I didn’t expect the blindfold to freak him out so badly, and I got so into things that I forgot about him.  I’m not going to threaten him with anything more.  The broom thing was effective, I admit, but this man has been through enough that if I make threats seem normal to him, he’ll get stubborn, and that’s the last thing I need.  I really don’t want to carry out the broomstick threat, so I’m not going to do anything that might stimulate him to resist.

 

Jack could just imagine what Grady had threatened to do with a broomstick, and it made him want to throw up.  He wondered if Grady had ever had somebody fuck him with an object like that, if he knew how it felt.  Jack knew, and he didn’t want Daniel to find out.

 

> Now, dinner wasn’t for you, or for the film, it was for us.  This isn’t a pick up, or a whore, Glen.  This is a man I like and care about, and someone I have to work with.  I thought he was more experienced than he was, I misread the signals or something, and so I did a few things that nearly scuttled this from the start.  This will be a long term relationship, you’ll have plenty of material, and Daniel is a strong man.  He won’t be boring, I promise, but he needs to be brought along slowly.  He’s a good man, and a gentle man, he just has needs he can’t acknowledge because our culture makes people feel guilty for them.  It’s kind of funny, he’s this big culture expert, but he’s just as affected by our culture as anyone.

 

Or maybe you’re just a complete nutcase, Jack thought.

 

> I’m still working on him to make sure he doesn’t report me on Monday, so I’m hardly like to ‘get harder with him.’  Don’t be a dick, Glen, and quit thinking with either your dick or your pocketbook.
> 
> I’m taking the rest of the night off, and that’s the way it is.  If you’d rather not be bored, I can always turn the feed off.  There are people who enjoy videos that include relationship stuff as well as sex, you know.  Give that some thought.  Though you might not want to use the dinner anyway, that tells a little too much about him personally.  There aren’t many people who know as much about cross-pollination of cultures as he does.
> 
> Nate

 

Jack wanted to throw things, but he just gestured for Thompson to go back to the beginning of the message.  He wanted to know what Glen had made of that.

 

> Nate,
> 
> Aren’t you the humanitarian?  God, I forgot how preachy you can get.  Fine, I accept that you can’t call in sick for him, and I guess I’ll have to put up with your high morals.  But you do recognize that he’s going to have these reactions, right?  If he’s a total virgin, and I’m guessing he is, then you’re going to have to work him past that kind of panic.
> 
> Threats are part of the game, Nate.  I don’t know what you  mean about what the guy’s been through, but if you don’t plan on carrying something out, you damned well don’t want to threaten it.  I’ve been sitting here hoping he’d bite you so I could see the broomstick thing.  I thought you expected it and that was part of the plan.  Let me tell you, I could watch that till the cows come home.
> 
> And you’d better be prepared to make some serious threats to make sure this guy doesn’t report you, because at this point, if you go down, so do I, and I don’t want to.  Our financials are too tightly tied together for me to stay clear of you doing a nosedive.  Tell me you’re prepared to take care of things if it looks like he won’t cooperate.  I know he’s a good lay, that much is obvious, but you’re beginning to sound like you’ve fallen in love with him or something. He’s pretty, he’s got a great body, and he’s got some kind of luminosity that just comes through the camera like crazy, but you brought him in here, and once he’s in here he’s just a fuck.  You said before you were prepared to deal with it if one of the whores got too hot to handle, you’d better be prepared to deal with him if things get sticky.
> 
> Glen

 

Jack wouldn’t have believed it, but he suddenly had the distinct sense that Grady was the lesser of the two evils.  He was still a bastard, self-deluded and wacko, but Glen was about twenty times worse.  It was almost laughable, seeing Glen write about Grady’s ‘high morals,’ but Grady did have a moral code, warped as it was.  Jack supposed that there were people out there who had ‘sexual danger’ fetishes, but it wasn’t for someone else to decide that, and it sure as hell wasn’t appropriate for that other person to take it upon themselves to ‘help’ them with it.

He remembered the phone in his hand and lifted it to his ear.  He could hear Carter’s voice in the background sounding very frustrated.  “He’s not paying any attention, Teal’c.  I don’t know -- he must have gotten something on his screen that we don’t have.”

“Another e-mail,” Jack said.

“What?” Carter asked.

“Have you read the one Thompson forwarded a few minutes ago?”

“No.  Sir, I think we’ve got Glen’s address.”

Jack’s attention focused sharply on the phone.  “Why didn’t you say something?”

“I did,” she said, a hint of exasperation in her tone.  “We’re putting together a team.  I presume you want to go?”

“Of course.  When, where and how many times do I get to shoot the bastard?”

Sam told him and he hung up.  “We have Glen’s address.  You monitor his communications and --”

“You have mail,” chirped the computer.  They pulled it up.  It was another reply, so Thompson immediately scrolled down.

 

> Glen,
> 
> Nothing’s going to get that sticky.  Don’t get bent out of shape, and quit talking about ‘dealing’ with Daniel.
> 
> Look, we need to talk and e-mail isn’t going to cut it.  Can you come out here?  I’m not likely to get much sleep tonight, so anytime is fine.
> 
> Nate

 

Jack nodded when he’d finished reading and Thompson scrolled back to the top.

 

> Nate,
> 
> Give me a two hours to get the rest of Part 2 out, and I’ll be there with bells on.  Promise me I’ll get to see this paragon of yours, okay?  You know me, no touching, just looking.
> 
> Glen

 

“Hot damn!” Jack said.  “I’m going to go meet Carter and Teal’c.  You monitor things here and let me know immediately if anything changes.”

“Yes sir,” Thompson said.

Jack ran out to his truck and climbed in, heading straight for the meeting place.

* * *

Daniel was sitting in the chair, not that he had much choice in the matter, when Grady came back.  The other man pulled his chair around the side of the table and sat down, his knee touching Daniel’s.  Without thinking, Daniel automatically shifted away, but Grady put his hand out and caressed his knee through the fabric of the pajamas.

“I thought we were done for the night,” Daniel said.

“Probably,” Grady replied.  “We just have something to talk about.”  Daniel blinked nervously, and Grady’s eyes grew wide and slightly hungry.  He seemed to exert some effort to calm himself, then licked his lips and said, “Glen has billed us as B&D, so we may have to explore that a little more tomorrow.”

Daniel clenched his fists, causing the chains on his wrist to clink.  Bondage and discipline?  He stared down at his hands, willing this nightmare to end.

Grady leaned forward.  “No, Daniel, don’t . . . it won’t be like that . . . I would never hurt you.”  He took Daniel’s hands in his, squeezing gently.  “Just a little play.  I’m not into that sort of thing myself, much.  I’d rather my partner was a bit more feisty, a bit more active than that whole submissive thing.”

“So you want me to do things you don’t even enjoy, because this Glen wants it.”

“No, not like that, Daniel,” Grady said, reaching up to stroke the side of Daniel’s face.  Was it meant to be reassuring?  It wasn’t.  “I won’t do anything that I think you couldn’t handle.  I’m going to keep this to your pace.”

Daniel closed his eyes and thumped his head back against the chair.  “And you think you know what that is?”

He heard and felt Grady shifting, and was startled to find the man’s lips on his.  He freed one of his hands from Grady’s and pushed him away.  “You said no more tonight.”

Grady’s eyes were hot with desire.  “You changed my mind,” he said.

Daniel jerked his hands free and pushed the man back.  “I’m not interested.”

“I bet I can change your mind.”

Grady stood up away from his reaching hands and went around behind, pulling the chains taut and locking them somehow so Daniel’s hands were forced to the sides of the chair.  Then he left and Daniel waited for what was coming.  After several minutes, Grady returned and released the chains just enough to permit him to force Daniel’s wrists together.  He cuffed them in that position and then released the rest of the restraints holding him in this room.

Daniel didn’t speak.  He didn’t know what to say.  Everything he’d just done, all that conversation was to put this moment off that much longer.  “You sure you don’t want to hear about carbon dating?”

“Later, beautiful, later.”  Grady tossed him over his shoulder again and carried him back out to the table where he put him down and deftly chained him up again.  This was followed by the ceremonial cutting off of the clothes, which on this occasion seemed to require a bit more fondling than it had on the first.  Daniel yanked on his wrists and Grady tapped him on the chest.  “Stop that.  We don’t want you bleeding again.”

“Stop this and it won’t be a problem,” Daniel replied.  Grady’s response was to dig under the table for a few moments longer and then he rigged something that immobilized Daniel’s arms just below the elbows, preventing him from getting any leverage to yank on the chains.  Daniel grit his teeth against the curses he wanted to yell.

Then Grady started strapping his legs out as he had earlier, so many hours ago and he let the curses rip.  Grady just kept looking at him and grinning until Daniel ran down.  “You know, Daniel,” he said, wedging Daniel’s hips up again.  “I’ve often thought that knowing how to speak so many languages so fluently must make your tongue incredibly flexible.”

That robbed Daniel of words.  What could he say to that?  He lay there, breathing a little hard from his rant, while Grady started lubing him up.  The thing that Daniel found startling about that was that Grady himself was still fully dressed.  “What are you doing?”

“We’re going to have a little fun, but you’ve had enough thrusting for your first day of anal sex,” Grady said.  He walked over to the shelves across the room and picked something up that he kept hidden in his hands.  “But while I’m having my fun, you deserve a little fun of your own.”  He stopped beside Daniel’s hip and squeezed some more lube onto his hand, beginning to coat whatever was in his hand with it.  “Relax, and enjoy it.  Believe me, you’re going to love this.”

He put one hand on Daniel’s belly and pressed the object against Daniel’s slicked up anus.  “No!”  Daniel shook his head.  “God, what are you doing to me?”

“It’ll be fun,” Grady said, exerting pressure against the ring of muscles and popping the object through.  It was warmed from Grady’s hands, but unlike Grady’s cock it was solid, with no real give to it.  Grady slowly worked the thing into him, pushing and turning it.  Daniel just kept protesting, begging him to stop, but that wasn’t happening, clearly.  When he was satisfied with its depth, he wrapped some kind of straps around Daniel’s hips to hold it in place.  Then, looking into Daniel’s eyes, he did something to the end of it.

Daniel jerked with shock as the thing started vibrating.  It was buried deep inside his guts, and it was making him feel . . . very odd.  It was sending little shocks of near-pleasure to Daniel’s groin, but Grady began to turn the thing, and after a few moments of experimentation, he found the sweet spot he’d found earlier in the bathroom.  Daniel jerked again with surprise as it sent an electric jolt of pleasure to his cock, bringing it to half mast.  Grady grinned at the outraged expression on Daniel’s face and turned the end a little, sending the vibration up a notch.  Daniel groaned at the sensations that were coursing through him.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Grady said, and he went upstairs, leaving Daniel alone with the thing slowly arousing him.

* * *

Jack sat in the van with Teal’c and Sam.  They were waiting for Glen to come out of his house. Carter had already walked up and down a bit and identified that there was no rear vehicular exit to the property, so if he was coming out, he was coming out the front.

Two other teams were parked a ways off, SG-2 and SG-3.  Doc Fraiser was with SG-2, ready in case she was needed.  Jack was hoping she’d be needed more for the bastards that took Daniel than for Daniel himself.

The waiting was going to make him nuts, especially since Carter had brought a laptop that was hooked into the live feed with her, and Grady had failed to keep his promise.  They had experts searching for Grady’s address already, and none of SG-1 was really suited to the task, but it was hard to sit there quietly while Grady stuck a dildo up Daniel’s ass, turned it on and left him alone.  It was doubly hard knowing that Glen was inside that house, probably getting turned on by watching.

“We should go in and force that sholtak to reveal DanielJackson’s whereabouts,” Teal’c said.

“There’s no guarantees that will work,” Carter said.  “And it might take longer than waiting.”

“I think I can make certain that he speaks, Major Carter,” Teal’c said, flexing his hands.

Jack sympathized, but he shook his head.  “We have a definite lead to follow.  Let’s follow it and not take any chances we don’t have to.  Daniel will understand.”  At least Jack hoped he would.

“I very much doubt this Glen has any honor.  He will not stand up for his friend.”

“It doesn’t always take honor, Teal’c, sometimes it can just be plain old stubbornness,” Jack said.

“This is true,” Teal’c admitted.

“And . . .” Carter started tentatively.  They both looked at her.  “He might have some way to warn Grady.  We really don’t need this to turn into something worse.”

“Right,” Jack said.

“Indeed.”

They returned to silence, watching the feed and the house in turn.


	62. Chapter 62

The door opened and closed again, making Daniel jerk with surprise.  And any movement made the thing shift inside him.  He could not believe this was happening. Grady emerged into view in the mirror and Daniel saw that he was wearing boxer shorts and nothing else.

He walked across and very gently removed the wedge from under Daniel’s ass and carefully lowered Daniel’s legs so that they were once more spread-eagled on the table.  The movement sent the thing slightly deeper inside Daniel, but it was still stimulating that spot most effectively.  Daniel gasped and twitched very slightly, feeling incredibly, vilely aroused.

Grady climbed up on the table and knelt beside Daniel.  “This is going to be fun,” he said.

“Please, Grady --”

“Nate,” the major corrected.

Daniel closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  “Nate, please take that thing out of me,” he said.

Grady reached down and took hold of Daniel’s partially erect penis.  “Not while it’s giving you such a boost,” he said.

“Grady . . .”

“Nate, Daniel, or you could try calling me ‘master’ if you’re not comfortable with Nate.”

“I can think of other things to --”  Daniel broke off as the hand on his cock pulled gently.  He bit off a groan and clenched his teeth tightly shut.  Grady let go of his penis and shifted to straddle him.  Bending, he kissed Daniel on the mouth again.  Daniel didn’t cooperate, and Grady drew back.  “Here’s a new deal,” he said.

Daniel shook his head.  “No deals.”

“As long as you keep kissing me back whenever I kiss you, the blindfold stays off.”  Daniel glared up at him.  It was a different deal, and one that Grady wasn’t likely get carried away and forget about.  Or if he did, it wouldn’t hurt Daniel any.  “You stop at any point, and I pull the blindfold out from where I’ve got it stashed under the table and you wear it for the duration.”

Daniel licked his lips nervously, and Grady bent to his neck rather than his lips, perhaps giving him time to consider his options, perhaps giving him time to forget the ‘deal.’

His hands traveled Daniel’s torso, and that stimulation combined with the vibrator was making Daniel insane.  His tongue and teeth teased the skin on Daniel’s neck.  After a few minutes, Grady worked his way up to Daniel’s mouth and plunged his tongue in.  After a moment, Daniel tried to kiss back, but it wasn’t easy.  He loathed this.

Grady kept playing, kept teasing him, moving away from his mouth to nibble and suck elsewhere, Daniel’s nipples his belly, finally, pulling his cock into his mouth and sucking for a while.

Daniel moaned and twitched under him, wishing he could stop, but it was impossible.  Grady came back up his body and kissed him again.  Daniel managed a better job of kissing back this time, but it was still pretty pathetic.

Grady didn’t seem to mind.  Daniel could feel the hardening erection inside Grady’s shorts.  The major pressed his groin against Daniel’s, rubbing their erections together, and shifting Daniel’s hips.  The vibration, the friction, the nipping of Grady’s teeth on his earlobe, all combined to cause Daniel to cum.  Like the kissing it was pretty pathetic, but Daniel had never tried to do it this many times in one day.  Grady kissed him gently and said, “Don’t worry, it’s just stamina.  You can build it up.”

He didn’t seem to be done, though.  He kept playing, until Daniel was ready to scream from the over sensitization of his body.  He kept rubbing himself against Daniel until his own release came, and he plunged his tongue into Daniel’s mouth and kissed him with abandon.

Daniel couldn’t keep up.  He was tired, he didn’t want this and he wanted to go to sleep.  It was all too much for him to handle.  Grady lay over the top of him for a moment or so, then pushed himself back up and nipped Daniel’s ear.  “You didn’t play that last time,” he whispered.

Daniel had been resting, his eyes closed, hoping that it was finally done for the night.  Or was it morning by now?  At Grady’s words his eyes flipped open and he saw that the major was reaching under the table.  Panic started to reassert itself.  “No!  Please, Nate.”

“You heard the deal, you broke it and now you’ve got to pay the consequences.”  Daniel shook his head and twisted, trying to avoid the blindfold, but it was no use.  Grady secured it around his head and then, mercifully, removed the vibrator from Daniel’s anus.

Daniel heard water running, and Grady gave him a sponge bath.  Blinded, he lay with his heart rate elevated, his breath a bit short, while Grady cleaned him and the table off and puttered about for a few minutes.

A hand on his shoulder several minutes after the bath was over made him jump.  “I’ll be back later,” Grady said.  Then he bent to kiss Daniel.  Panic swept over him, and Daniel kissed him back, urgently, hoping desperately that it would get him to remove the blindfold before he left.

Grady drew back.  “Now if you’d just done that earlier, you wouldn’t be wearing that thing,” he said and Daniel turned his head away, humiliated.  Grady stroked his chin.  “Nothing’s going to happen to you, Daniel.  You’re safe.  I won’t hurt you, and I won’t let anyone else hurt you.”

“What makes you think I’ll believe that?” Daniel asked, and his voice shook.

“We’ll have to practice until you do,” Grady replied.  He kissed Daniel again, and Daniel clenched his jaw shut stubbornly.  Grady stroked his cheek with something like tenderness, then left, going up the stairs and closing the door.

Daniel lay there, jittering anxiously for a long while, but eventually weariness overtook him and he slept.

* * *

Jack’s hands were itching with the desire to strangle both those bastards by the time a short, paunchy blond man came out of the front door of the house they were watching.  He was wearing denim shorts, a t-shirt with a loud band logo on it, and a baseball cap.  He pointed the key chain in his hand at a Hummer.  The lights flashed on and off, and the vehicle’s horn chirped.

He climbed in and pulled away from the curb.  Carter was already in the driver’s seat, ready to go and she let out a little crow of triumph.

“What is it?” he asked.

“His license plate says GLEN007,” she said.  “This guy is a serious loser.”

“I do not understand,” Teal’c said as they got underway.

Jack started to explain, then said, “Later, T.”

Teal’c raised an eyebrow, but didn’t pursue it as Jack called the other teams to let them know they were on the move.

The drive was about a half hour, and took them to an older house that abutted the freeway easement.  Glen paused in front of it and then the garage door opened.  He pulled inside and the garage door closed behind him.

“Now we go?” Teal’c asked.

“No,” Jack replied.  “Now we stay right where we are because we need to make sure this is the right house.  Grady’s taking him to see Daniel, so we should see him on one of the camera pick ups.”

“Right,” Carter said.

Teal’c didn’t speak, he just turned to the screen where the feed was showing Daniel still sleeping on that table.

* * *

The sound of the door opening woke Daniel sharply, and he heard feet coming down the stairs.  Compared to the usual sound, it was thunderous.  Or maybe he was just being sensitive.  “Grady?” he asked uncertainly.  The he cleared his throat, remembering.  “Nate?”

“Don’t worry, Daniel, it’s okay,” Grady said.

Daniel turned his head and his breath started coming in shorter gasps.  “Who’s with you?” he asked apprehensively.  Grady’s voice had come from his left, but he could distinctly hear breathing on his right.

Two voices spoke at once.  “No one’s with me, Daniel,” Grady said.

An unknown, slightly nasal voice said, “He seems bigger than I expected.”

Daniel’s fists clenched.  Grady had brought a _friend_ in to look at him?  “Bastard!” he growled.

“You stupid shit, you weren’t supposed to say anything!” Grady said, and Daniel could tell he was walking around the end of the table to the other man’s side.

“He knew I was here!” the nasal voice protested.  “You heard him.”

“He suspected,” Grady said.  “He didn’t know.”

“So let’s take the blindfold off.  I want to see those incredible eyes in person.”

* * *

Jack’s team started moving the minute Glen appeared in the main room of the basement.  As they got out of the van, Jack called teams two and three in to back them up and verified the location.  Carter held out a radio of some kind toward the garage door and it opened.

When Jack raised an eyebrow at her, she shrugged.  “Captured the frequency when Glen opened it.”  They slipped inside and Carter left it open, to help pinpoint the location and make it easier for the other teams to come in.

The Hummer was parked inside alongside a dark blue Saturn.  Daniel’s car.  Jack peered inside and saw a couple of copies of _Archeology Today_ in the front foot well, and Daniel’s keys stuck in the ignition.  On the floor of the backseat were Daniel’s watch and his military ID badge.  Across from the driver’s side rear door there was evidence that someone had hit the row of shelves solidly and knocked most of their contents to the ground.  From the state of the drying pool of paint on the floor, Jack would guess that it had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

Daniel hadn’t gone easily.

They crept to the door from the garage into the house and, with Sam and Teal’c on either side of it, he pushed it open.  Beyond all he saw was an open hallway with a kitchen on one side and a door directly across.  Jack would guess it was the door to the basement.

They had no way of knowing if there was anyone else in the house.  It would be insanely stupid to wind up trapped in the basement with Daniel, Grady and Glen because he’d miscalculated.  At that moment, SG-3 came in and he gestured for them to check the house out.

SG-2 would be along in a moment, so he nodded to Teal’c and Carter.  They moved to flank the basement door, and Jack opened it.


	63. Chapter 63

Daniel’s heart was pounding hard as the pair of men argued over him.  “We uncover his eyes, he sees your face, Glen,” Grady said.  “I thought that was something you wanted to avoid.”

“What does it matter now?” the nasal voice asked.  Daniel gulped.  Glen?  This, then, was the man who had asked for more B&D positions, the man who had been watching the video feed this whole time and editing portions of it together to make a movie.  “I told you, our financials are so tied together now that there’s no possibility of severing it.  I might as well get a few kicks while I’m at it.”

Daniel felt a presence near his head and jerked away, reflexively looking up to see who it was, what was happening despite the impossibility.  His heart rate kicked up a notch as he heard flesh on flesh.

“That’s not how it works, Glen,” Grady said.  “No touching. You said that.”

“I was just going to take the blindfold off, Nate, don’t get your panties in a bunch.”

The door at the top of the stairs opened suddenly, causing Daniel to spasm with alarm.  His anger at this whole situation went through the roof.  “How many friends have you brought to see me, Nate?” he demanded angrily.

There was no answer for a moment, then Daniel heard a voice he’d been longing to hear from the direction of the stairs.  “I don’t believe we were invited, Daniel,” Jack drawled.  “Our invitations must have gotten lost in the mail.”

“Ja –” Daniel started to exclaim, but, after a brief shuffling sound, a hard hand seized his chin, yanking his head back and something cold and sharp touched his throat right above the jugular.  Daniel’s breath stopped.

“You come any nearer and I’ll kill him.”  It was Glen’s nasal voice, and he sounded very sincere.

All movement in the room stopped and Daniel wished violently that he could see something.  Where was Jack?  Who was with him?  What was Grady doing?

“You shed one drop of that man’s blood and I’ll let _him_ kill you.”  Daniel really didn’t think Jack meant him, so he could only assume that he was pointing at a suitably murderous-looking Teal’c.

Glen’s knife hand slipped a little and Daniel gasped at the shocking feel of the knife moving against his neck.  It didn’t quite break the skin, though.  After a moment, Glen said, “Well, your friend would still be dead, so that wouldn’t gain you much, now would it?”

“He has a point, O’Neill,” Teal’c said and Daniel took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  Jack and Teal’c were here, and wherever they were, Sam couldn’t be far behind.  Even with a knife at his throat, their presence lent him confidence.  They would find a way to get him out of this.

He wanted to yell his relief to the ceiling, but his talking now might startle the man with the knife, so he figured he’d better keep out of it.

“What do you want?” Jack asked.  Daniel knew he was just gauging the seriousness of the man’s desperation before he attacked him.  He had to be.

“Safe passage out of here to . . .”  Glen paused.  “I’ll figure that out when I have a vehicle.  Safe passage for me, and Nate, and our hostage.  Then –”  The voice broke off with a scream as something jerked the knife away from Daniel’s throat.  It fell from the hand that held it, nicking the side of Daniel’s neck as it hit the table and bounced off.

Daniel let out a choked cry of pain, then fell silent, waiting for what was to come, heart pounding so hard it had to be echoing off the walls.

* * *

Jack froze when the knife fell.  No one could possibly make it to them in time, but the tip of the blade barely touched Daniel’s neck before the weapon fell off the table, turning in midair to land point down in the carpet next to Glen’s feet.

There was a cracking sound and Glen let out another scream and fell to his knees cradling what was clearly a broken arm.  Before Jack could even tell him to, Grady had kicked the knife across to them, guaranteeing that neither he nor Glen had further access to it.

They finished their interrupted trek down the stairs, and Sam went to pick the knife up.  Teal’c, glancing at Jack to make sure that he had the two men covered, walked across to Daniel.  “You are safe, DanielJackson,” he said in his deep voice and tension seemed to run out of the archeologist’s body.

“I’d feel safer if I wasn’t naked, Teal’c,” he said, sounding so much like himself that Jack was ready to cry with relief.

Grady reached into a pocket and Jack turned slightly, aiming the .45 at him and raising an eyebrow.  “Just getting the key,” Grady said hastily.  “Daniel, tell them this was all in fun, come on,” he added.  “I don’t know why Glen lost his head like that.  He’s always been a little unstable.  But it was all in fun, just a little –”

“Bastard!” Daniel said as Teal’c removed the blindfold and took the key from Grady’s outstretched hand.  “Shoot him, Jack.”

“Really?” Jack asked, a little startled by Daniel’s bloodthirstiness.  Sam opened her mouth, then closed it again without speaking.  Teal’c, unlocking the bonds, raised an eyebrow, and Grady looked as taken aback as Jack felt.

Daniel sat up and squinted around the room, rubbing the bandages on his wrists.  His eyes darted around to take in Jack, Sam just beside him, and the two marines that had come in behind them.  Daniel glared over at Grady.  “No, I guess not.  He’s just terminally stupid and maybe insane.  Could someone find me something to wear?”

Jack turned to the marines behind him.  “I think we’ve got this under control, sergeants.  One of you go see if you can find something, the other call base and tell them we’ve got Daniel, then fetch Dr. Fraiser before she has an apoplexy.”

Daniel blinked owlishly at him, still trying to adjust to the light.  Teal’c had unbound his ankles as well and stood by his side.  “I think it would be better for your health if you would move further away,” he said to Grady.  Still seeming a bit stunned, Grady moved.  Glen still sat on the floor cradling his broken arm.

He started whining.  “He made me do it,” he said.  “I didn’t want to.  He forced me to --”

“Edit together pornographic movies?” Sam said contemptuously and the man stared up at her, looking shocked.  “We’ve got people evaluating your house as we speak.  From what I heard when we were on the way over here, there will be way more charges than simple rape.”

“I haven’t raped anybody,” the man protested.

“Carter, leave it,” Jack said as she opened her mouth to go on.  “We’ll let his lawyer explain it to him.”  The marine who had been delegated to fetch the clothing came downstairs with a bathrobe.  Jack gestured towards Teal’c and Daniel.

The archeologist looked at it with distaste but got off the table and pulled it on.  Teal’c helped him to stand when he looked a little wobbly on his feet, and Daniel shot him a look of pure gratitude.  Jack sent the marine to scout out Daniel’s glasses.

Fraiser came down the steps two at a time and went straight to Daniel.  “Are you hurt at all?”

He looked down at her.  “Nothing serious, Janet, really.”

“We’ve got an ambulance waiting for you topside,” she said gently, then turned to the medics who had trailed after her.  “Could you do something to make the jackass on the floor stop whining?” she snapped irritably.

The pair jumped into action immediately.

“I really don’t need an ambulance, Janet,” Daniel said as the marine delivered his glasses into his hands.  He put them on and looked plaintively at Fraiser.  “I’d rather ride in someone’s car or something like that if it’s all the same to you.”

“This isn’t up for discussion,” she said, reaching up to cup his cheek in her hand.

He smiled at the affectionate gesture, but shook his head.  “I’m not riding in the same ambulance as him,” he said.

“He’ll get his own,” she replied.  “Now come --”

“Janet, please, can’t I --”

“Teal’c?” Fraiser said.

Without his expression changing in the least, Teal’c scooped Daniel up across his arms and started towards the stairs.

“Oh, damn,” Daniel groaned.  “I can walk, Teal’c.  If I agree to get into the ambulance will you let me walk?”

“I do not believe so, DanielJackson,” Teal’c said, reaching the stairs and heading up.

“Jack?”

“I don’t wrestle with friendly Jaffa,” Jack replied.  “And I sure don’t stand up to ol’ Doc Fraiser.”

“Damn right, you don’t,” she said as she followed Teal’c up the stairs.

Jack snorted, then turned to the marines, Grady and Glen.  “Keep an eye them, sergeants,” he said.  “If they twitch, shoot them.”  Grady blanched, but he didn’t move.

“Who are you wackos?” Glen demanded as Jack climbed the steps with Sam close behind him.

One of the marines said, “People who will shoot you without hesitation.”

Jack grinned as he went out of the house and into the driveway.  SG-2 was keeping the civilians at bay.  Evidently Grady’s neighbors were a curious bunch.  Jack walked to the end of the ambulance where Fraiser was reassuring Daniel that they were going to the base, not to the local hospital.  He seemed very relieved.

“Teal’c, you head into base with our lost lamb,” Jack said, and the Jaffa nodded gravely.

Daniel knit his brows and looked worriedly at Jack.  “Aren’t you coming?”

“I’ve got some things to wrap up here, me and Carter both,” Jack said.  Carter shifted beside him, and he could tell she wasn’t happy.  “But we’ll be along soon.”

Daniel nodded, lips pursed.  “Jack, don’t believe anything Grady tells you,” he said.  “He’s got this weird idea . . . I don’t know where it came from . . . that I’m --”

Jack climbed up and knelt beside Daniel on the gurney, pushing Fraiser further into the vehicle.  “Daniel, I know what’s been going on.  We . . . figured it out.  Grady is a first class bastard, and he isn’t getting away with this.”

“You figured it out?” Daniel asked.  His eyes went from Jack’s face to Sam’s, then to Teal’c’s and then they went very bleak.  “Just how many people have seen that live feed?” he asked.  Not for nothing was he their communications expert, Jack thought.  Not for nothing . . .  Daniel turned his face away.  He’d already had his arms around his chest, and now he was self-hugging for all he was worth.  Fraiser’s eyes were wide, Jack could see her out of the corner of his eye.  Sam was behind him, and Teal’c was just out of his frame of vision as he focused on Daniel.

Jack reached out and squeezed his forearm.  “No one saw it who didn’t need to as part of the search, Daniel,” he said.  “We couldn’t ignore it, though, once we’d found it.  Grady could have . . . we had to know what he was doing to you, if he’d moved you, what was happening.”

Lips compressed, head still turned away, Daniel nodded.  “I know,” he murmured.  “It doesn’t make it . . . I’d really hoped he was lying to me.”

“I’m sorry, Daniel,” Jack said as Glen’s e-mail flashed in his mind.  Seven hundred copies of part one, three hundred copies of part two, and that was well over two hours ago.  Glen’s drive to this location hadn’t been more than ten minutes.  Jack had no guess how many more copies of either of those had been sent out between that e-mail and Glen’s leaving his home.  He hoped that the computer geniuses had some idea how to solve that little problem.

“We should be going, Colonel,” Dr. Fraiser said gently.

Daniel nodded and reached out to squeeze Jack’s hand on his arm.  “Thanks Jack.  I thought -- I was afraid no one would realize I was missing at all, and Grady’d let me go and I’d have to . . . to explain all of this to someone.”

Jack had wondered what Daniel was thinking several times while he watched the live feed.  Now he knew, and he hated the idea of Daniel lying there, wondering if anyone would notice that he was missing.  The truly frightening part, though, and the part he had no intention of sharing with Daniel, was how close he had come to being right.  If Jack hadn’t trusted his gut, they might not have started looking until much later.

Carter made a muffled noise behind him and reached out to squeeze Daniel’s foot.  “Everything’s going to be okay,” she said, her voice choked.

Daniel smiled and leaned forward, bending almost double.  Jack wondered if that position hurt any after what had happened to him today.  Yesterday.  It was past midnight now.  Jack shook his head and returned his attention to the people in front of him.  The archeologist grabbed Carter’s hand.  “Sam, everything is great.  You guys came for me.  Grady and Glen are going to get what they deserve.  All is right with the world, at least for the moment.”

Carter squeezed Daniel’s hand back and said, “Okay, I’ll take your word on that.”

“Oh,” Daniel said.  “And can someone have my car steam-cleaned?  I’m more than a little disturbed by the thought that Grady drove it.”

“I’ll see to it,” Jack said.  “We’ll be along soon.  Don’t give Fraiser too much trouble.”

Daniel chuckled and leaned back on the gurney.  “Me?  Give Janet trouble?  I’d never do that.”

Jack clambered out the back of the ambulance awkwardly and shut the doors.  They stood watching as the ambulance drove away.  Then Jack turned and looked at Daniel’s car behind him in the garage.  “I wonder what the trade-in value is on a ‘96 Saturn?”

Carter gave him a startled look.  “Sir, he asked to have it cleaned, not replaced.”

“Yeah, well, would you want to drive a car you got kidnapped in?  He may not realize it yet, but I very much doubt he’ll ever be comfortable driving that car again.”

“That’s true, I suppose,” she said.  “Um . . . sir, what is it we need to do?”

“I want you to get the techs set up with the right priorities, and I want to make sure that those two wind up in the right custody.  As soon as you have the techs here straightened out, I want you to go over to Glen’s house and make sure they know what they need to do.  And I also want you to find out exactly how many of those videos went out.”

The technicians and the MPs should be along before too much time passed.  He left her waiting for them in the driveway and went back downstairs to look in on the prisoners.  Grady had sat down on the floor, leaning his back against the wall.  Glen now had a splint on his arm, and he glared dully up at Jack.  “What are you lunatics going to do with us?” he asked.

Jack thought for a moment, then sat down on the steps.  “I guess I forgot to tell you that you’re both under arrest.  Grady thumped his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

“Under arrest for what?” Glen demanded.  “I didn’t know the useless git wasn’t willing.”

Jack stood up slowly.  Glen watched him, eyes full of anger and not much sense.  Grady cleared his throat.  “Glen, I think you might be --”

Glen turned on him.  “You shut up, Nate!  This is all your fault.  If you’d done your job right, we wouldn’t be in this mess now.”

Grady shook his head and subsided.  Jack had continued his slow approach.  When he reached the pudgy man, he squatted.  “You have a broken arm,” he said.  “Do you want another one?”

This gave the man pause, but only briefly.  “What exactly am I charged with?”

Jack smiled.  “Well, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon for certain.”  Glen’s eyes widened.  “Then there’s the rape --”

“I didn’t touch the jackass.”

“No, but you participated just as surely as if you had.  And I wouldn’t recommend calling Dr. Jackson any more disrespectful names from here on in.  The men who are going to take you into custody like Daniel almost as much as I do, and I want to kill you.”  The quiet, calm assurance of that tone seemed to get through to Glen.  “Now, I suggest you keep your mouth shut, assuming you’re capable.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Glen declared.  “It’s only your word against mine that I did anything at all with the knife, and you’ve got a personal stake, you just said so.”

Jack opened his mouth to speak, but Grady jumped in before he could.  “I’d testify against you in a minute, you moron!” he growled.  “I can’t believe you actually cut him.”

“That was only because you were stupid enough to try and stop me!” Glen replied.  “Besides, that’s accomplice testimony, isn’t it?  Not allowed.”

Jack blinked.  “Not allowed without other corroboration,” he said, and Glen nodded as though satisfied.  “But of course, there is other corroboration.  There’s me, Major Carter, Teal’c, the two marines, Daniel himself . . .”  He listed them off on his fingers.  “And since the live feed is still on as far as I know, there’s a recording.”  Jack grinned.  “And you can’t even claim we tricked you, because you had to know the feed was on, and you most certainly know that the basement is heavily monitored.”

“You people are all wackos!” Glen growled.

“Maybe we are,” Jack said, tilting his head at the man.  “But we’re wackos with guns.  You might want to keep that in mind.”


	64. Chapter 64

Grady was leaning close, but Daniel couldn’t see him.  He could sense him, he could _smell_ him.  Daniel knew he was on the edge between sleep and waking, but he prepped himself to repel the bastard if it was at all possible.  He might get hurt afterwards, but his pride wouldn’t permit him to give up before he’d done everything he could.  When the hand came down on his shoulder, he was ready.

He struck out towards Grady’s face, not expecting the chains to permit him the opportunity.  Unexpectedly, his arm was free and his fist smacked flesh with a jolt that shocked his arm up to the shoulder.  Hands caught his wrists and he began to thrash desperately, dull pain reminding him of the wounds there.

“DanielJackson.”  Daniel jerked completely awake and he looked up into the worried eyes of Teal’c.  “You are safe.  We merely wish to take you out of the ambulance.”

Breathing heavily, Daniel sat up, then allowed Teal’c to help him to his feet.  “I’m sorry,” he said, squinting up at the bruise he’d left on Teal’c’s face.

“I am fine,” Teal’c said.  “We should get you into the infirmary, however.  Do you need to be carried?”

“No, I can walk,” Daniel said.  Daniel really didn’t want that story floating around, that he’d had to be carried onto the base.  “I’m not really injured.”

Janet gazed anxiously at him.  “I’m not sure we shouldn’t take you in on the gurney,” she said, brows knit.

Daniel shook his head fervently.  “I can walk.  I’m tired and I’m sore, but I can walk.”

“Daniel . . .” Janet started, but he shook his head again.

“Please, Janet, I’m really not hurt.”

Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed.  “Don’t even try to tell me you’re ‘fine,’ Daniel, because --”

“I’m not,” he said simply.  Her eyes widened and she stared at him in apparent surprise.  “I’m not fine.  I’m not going to be fine for a while, I don’t think.  But most of what’s wrong isn’t physical.”

She opened her mouth, then paused thoughtfully.  “All right, Daniel.  We’ll take you down to the infirmary under your own steam, but I want Teal’c right beside you the whole way.  I can’t catch you if you fall.”

Daniel glanced up at his stoic teammate, feeling immensely grateful for his care.  “I think you’d need a crowbar to even try to get him away, Janet.”

“Indeed, DanielJackson,” Teal’c said.  “And the attempt would fail.”

Daniel’s eyes were burning from lack of sufficient sleep, and his body felt incredibly sore.  Worse than he was letting on, but he really didn’t want to be carried either by Teal’c or on a gurney.  This was just the sort of pain that came from overexertion.  The sort of thing that gym coaches tell you is easier to deal with if you follow it up with more of the same.

That wasn’t happening, and Daniel knew from experience that the day after the overexertion was always the worst.  He didn’t think he’d quite reached the ‘day after’ yet, so he wasn’t looking forward to how he’d feel when he woke up in the morning.  Assuming he slept tonight.

At the check in point they found Hammond waiting.  Daniel blinked, startled.  “Sir?”

“Dr. Jackson,” Hammond said, walking forward immediately.  He put a hand on each of Daniel’s shoulders.  “I’m so sorry, son, this should never have happened.”

Daniel wet his lips nervously, not sure how to take this.  “It’s not your fault, sir,” he said as the general squeezed his shoulders, then shifted around so that he had an arm across his back.

“Let’s get you to the infirmary, son,” he said, and they started moving forward again.

Daniel looked up at the gate guard and said, “I think my ID is still in the car.”

Hammond squeezed across his back and said, “Don’t worry son, I’ll vouch for you.”

Giving the older man a half-smile, Daniel allowed him the illusion of helping him walk to the elevator.  Teal’c kept close beside him on the other side.  Daniel couldn’t figure out why Hammond was here.  “What time is it?” he asked.

“Not quite three a.m.,” Janet said.

Unless there was some crisis, Hammond was rarely on base that late, especially not on a Saturday.  “Is something going on offworld?” he asked.  “Some disaster?”

“No, son,” Hammond said.  “Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering what brought you on base at this hour.”

They had reached the elevator, and Hammond drew away for a moment while they waited for a car.  “I came in because you were missing, son,” he said and Daniel blinked in confusion.  The elevator doors opened and they walked in.

The trip to the level of the infirmary passed in silence, and when the elevator’s doors opened again Daniel was astonished to see Tony waiting outside.  “What are you still doing here?”

“I -- I --”

“He’s been helping with the search,” Hammond said and Tony broke off, looking grateful.  The procession made its way into the infirmary where Hammond started to guide him to a chair.

He resisted, shaking his head.  “I’d just as soon stand for the moment, sir.”

Hammond grimaced and nodded.  “Of course, Dr. Jackson.  Is there anything I can get for you?”

Daniel sighed and looked around.  He wanted Jack.  Teal’c made him feel safe and cared for, but Jack . . . he could tell Jack how he felt right now, and there weren’t many others he could do that with.  Jack also did a good job of handling his nightmares, neither making too much of a fuss about them nor ignoring them.  This was a rare thing in Daniel’s experience.

However, as he looked around the infirmary, he thought of one thing he really wanted that Hammond could guarantee him.  “I don’t want to stay here tonight,” he said.  Janet made a very soft, protesting sound and he turned to her.  “I’m perfectly willing to be examined, and I’d like something for pain, but all in all, my chief concern is that I don’t know how I’ll react to waking up in a public environment.  I just spent hours on ‘public display,’ so to speak.  I’m not sure how well I’d sleep, either.”

“That’s understandable, son.  I could arrange for someone to drive you back to your apartment or to Colonel O’Neill’s house.”

His apartment.  Jack’s house.  Alone.  The idea made his stomach twist.  “Not without Jack,” he said sharply, then flushed as he realized how idiotic that sounded.  “I mean --”  He broke off, not certain what to say.

Hammond didn’t seem to think there was anything odd in it, though.  “We’ll find you a private space on base,” he said, glancing at Janet who nodded reluctantly.  “And, sometime either tonight or tomorrow, I’m going to need you to tell me what happened.”

“Isn’t it all on tape?” Daniel asked bitterly, before he could control his response.

Hammond flinched, but he reached out with a sympathetic look and squeezed Daniel’s shoulder.  “That’s not all that happened, son.  We don’t know how he got you, and there are things that aren’t clear even on the video feed.”

Daniel nodded.  “I’m sorry, I wasn’t -- I didn’t mean --”

Hammond squeezed again.  “I know you didn’t.”

Trying to smile and making a hash of it, Daniel said, “As for how he got me, it was pretty simple.  He hid in the back seat of my car in Jack’s driveway.  I got in, he grabbed me from behind and knocked me out with pressure points.  The next thing I knew, I was tied up in the backseat of my car.”  Daniel shuddered at the memory of that claustrophobic ride.  “Covered with something heavy.”

 “I see,” Hammond said, face creasing further with sympathy.  Daniel looked away.  “Well, we can leave more information till later.”

“And it’s time for Daniel’s exam,” Janet said firmly.  “For which I don’t need an audience.”  She paused and looked at Daniel.  “Unless you’d rather not be . . . unless you’d rather someone came in.”

Daniel shook his head.  “No, no one needs to come in.”  He took his leave of the others and went into the exam room with her, then stopped.  “Just a minute.”  Sticking his head out the door, he said, “Could one of you go get me some clothes from my locker?”  Hammond nodded and Daniel shut the door.  He’d actually been asking either Teal’c or Tony, but Hammond would no doubt delegate as he saw fit.  He turned back to Janet.  “So, have you seen any of the video?”

“No, actually,” she said.  “I wasn’t summoned until it looked like we had a line on where you were.”

He closed his eyes.  “So you’re going to need details on what happened as part of this exam.”

“Yes,” she said gently.  “What I was told is that you were raped, more than once, involving full penile penetration.  Is there anything you want to add to that?”

He shrugged.  “Not really.  It was at least five times -- I think I may have lost track -- and no condom was used.  And the last time was not . . . it was a . . . a vibrator.”

Her eyebrows went up.  “Did he . . . use anything else?”

Daniel felt shivers go through him.  Talking about this was not doing good things to his mental state.  “Just his fingers,” he said, as if that were a minor thing.  They’d just gone through hell over Rigar’s fingers.  Oddly, what he’d just gone through didn’t make any difference to how he felt about what happened on P2X-416.  It didn’t lessen it or increase it, they were just very different events.

“I see,” Janet said, and her tone made it clear she recognized the irony.  “Well, I hate to ask this, but we need to proceed with the examination.”

Daniel nodded and he put his hands to the tie on the robe.  Janet turned away and he gladly pulled the garment off.  It smelled of Grady.  She talked calmly as she examined him, explaining the need for what she was doing.  Daniel had known this was coming, had expected it and tried to prepare himself for it.  He’d failed.

Before she’d really started, he felt the tears start pouring down his face.  The swab for the rape kit just made things worse, made it all more real somehow.  It had been one thing, down in Grady’s basement, in a world that hardly seemed possible, to think about the real world.  Now he was out in that real world, and the people he knew were talking about what happened in that basement.  The surreal had connected with reality very firmly, and that hit him harder than he’d expected.

He did manage, at least, to keep the weeping silent.  He endured the required examination, face out of view against the examination table.  When she told him he could stand up again, he turned around.  She had her back to him, reaching into a drawer to pull out a paper examination gown.  He could not stop the tears streaming down his cheeks, so he buried his face in his hands.

As he turned, she was saying, “You have a good many bruises, and I have a feeling you’ll be sore for a long while, but you seem to have been right.  Your anus shows no signs of tearing, and I see no indication of problems further in.  You will have to --”  She broke off as she turned around, holding out the exam gown.  “Daniel?”

He lowered his hands and took the exam robe.  She didn’t turn her back until he shook it out and then she flushed and whirled around.  Putting the gown on, he tried vainly to stop crying.  “I’m sorry, Janet,” he said, his voice broken.  “I’m not -- I don’t -- it’s not you.”

“Are you covered?” she asked, her voice very quiet.

“I am,” he replied.  He walked over and snatched some tissues out of a box on the counter.  “I don’t know why this is happening.”

She walked over and stood beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder.  “It’s a perfectly natural reaction, Daniel, like bleeding when a scab is peeled off.”

He laughed despite himself.  “That’s supposed to be comforting, is it?” he asked.

She smiled.  “Actually, I was hoping it would startle you enough to change your mood.”

He shook his head as the laughter drained from him.  “I’m not sure that’s possible right now, Janet.  I guess -- I -- it all seems very real now, in a way it didn’t before.”  He closed his eyes.  “Since the first . . . since the moment Grady started, I’ve been thinking that I was going to have to have another anal exam, dreading it.  It was the only specific event I thought about happening after it was . . . after it was over.”  He bit his lip and looked at Janet, whose eyes had crinkled sympathetically.  “It’s -- before I could almost pretend it wasn’t true, that it hadn’t happened.  But the events there and the events here have overlapped now, inextricably.”

Janet slipped an arm around his back, under his arm.  “Can you sit down?” she asked.

“I think so,” he said and she guided him to a chair, then hooked her stool over to sit down with him.

“I need to examine your arms,” she said.  “If you want to talk, feel free, but if you don’t, I understand.”

Her attention was focused on the bandage she was unwrapping from his left wrist.  He caught one of her hands with his right, stilling her, and she looked up.  “The problem I was having is gone,” he said.  “I don’t know when or how, but . . . it’s gone.  I -- maybe it was something Jack said.”

Janet’s eyes warmed with relief, then she returned firmly to the business-like unwrapping of the bandage.  “Something Colonel O’Neill said?” she asked, sounding amused and disbelieving.  “What did he say?”

Daniel shrugged.  “It doesn’t matter,” he said, thinking that the last thing she needed to hear right now was that he’d thought her care of him mentally wouldn’t have been up to the same standards as it might have been for the others.

They were silent for several moments, then she finally got to the end of the bandage.  Grady had wrapped lengths of cotton gauze around each wrist, almost as extra padding, Daniel thought, to avoid future problems.  The innermost layer was nevertheless stained with blood.  He hissed when she peeled it gently away, and she let out a string of curses as she did so.  “I thought you weren’t hurt?” she asked reprovingly.

“This isn’t major, Janet,” he said softly.  “Nothing life-threatening, nothing that couldn’t wait fifteen minutes.”

“You didn’t even mention that your wrists were hurt, Daniel,” she said, sounding irritable.  “I assumed at first that they had some kind of padding on them.”

“According to Grady I did that to myself.”  Daniel looked down at his wrist as she stood up and went to get a basin.  It was a nasty mess of friction burn, lacerations and bruising.  “He had me tied up, I didn’t see what with, but I managed to get myself loose.  He was kind of annoyed with me.”  Daniel bit his lip as she began to bathe his wrist with medicine.

“What happened?” she asked neutrally.

“He cleaned the wound and bandaged it, and then he . . .”  Daniel shuddered.  She didn’t respond for a moment, unwrapping the other arm.   “He put manacles on my wrists and tied me down.  It’s almost three, you said?”  She nodded.  “I spent most of the last nineteen or so hours tied up in one way or another.  All my joints feel strained from my efforts to get away, but there’s only so much you can do against steel.”  Or leather and no privacy, he thought.  “I need a shower.”

“Let me just finish washing your --”

“No,” he said, aware that he was being rude but not able to stop himself.  He took the basin from her hands and put it on the floor.  “I really, really need a shower.  Now.”

“Of course,” she said, rolling her stool back and standing up.  “I’d really rather you had Teal’c in the room, just in case you have any problems.”

He sighed and smiled at her.  “Of course, Janet,” he said.


	65. Chapter 65

Jack looked up from his sour contemplation of this room.  Mirrors on the ceiling, cameras behind and between them . . . it was revolting.  Using the laptop that was still hooked to the live feed, a couple of techs were locating and marking all the cameras.  Major Grady and Glen Phillips had been removed to the base in separate vehicles, Glen screaming all the way up the stairs and into the ambulance that they had no right, that he had a phone call coming to him and that someone should call the police.

Thus it was no surprise when the young marine came down the steps and told him that they had couple of Colorado Springs’ finest asking to see whoever was in charge.  Jack hauled himself to his feet and went up the stairs.

Lt. Travis of SG-2 was speaking to a pair of uniformed police officers.  “Sir,” he said, “this is Detective Jordan of the Colorado Springs Police Department.  Detective Jordan, this is Colonel Jack O’Neill.”

Jordan was a forty-ish man with dark hair and a very sober expression.  “Colonel O’Neill, would you mind telling me what’s going on here?”

Jack grimaced.  “I can’t tell you much, detective.  It concerns national security.”

“We received some reports that there were a bunch of commandos in this neighborhood, and that you kidnapped a couple of civilians.  One report said two, another said three.”

Pursing his lips, Jack said, “We rescued one man and placed the remaining two under arrest.”

Jordan rocked back on his heels.  “Rescued?  Who?  And from what?”

“A civilian consultant on a top secret military project,” Jack said.  “He was kidnapped by . . . well, I’m actually not sure how much I can tell you.  He was abducted, we traced him to this location and have placed his abductor and his accomplice under arrest.”

“Surely kidnapping is a local crime, under our jurisdiction.”

“We can’t be sure of that,” Jack replied.  “It’s possible that the kidnapping relates to the man’s work, which, as I said, is top secret and relates to national security.  As such, we have jurisdiction over the matter.”  Jack fell silent as Jordan stood, waiting for more.  Jack shrugged very slightly and Jordan’s brow lowered.

“Sir, I really need more information than that,” Detective Jordan protested.  “Who are the people involved?  When did this kidnapping take place?  And why weren’t the CSPD informed?”

“Give me a minute, would you?” Jack said and stepped back.  He pulled out his cell phone and called General Hammond.

“Hammond,” snapped the general into the phone.

“Sir, this is Colonel O’Neill.  I have a justifiably annoyed police officer here, demanding to know what’s going on.  What can I tell him?”

“What does he want to know?  And what have you told him already?”  Jack recapped the conversation and waited for Hammond’s response.  “You can tell him the names of the involved parties, that is already on the documents being sent to his superiors at the moment.  I’ve only just gotten the clearances to do what you’ve already done.”

“I see, sir.  But the clearances are on file now?”

“They are.  Be polite, but firm, colonel.  The names of the involved parties and the duration.  That is all.”

“Yes sir,” Jack said and hung up.  Jordan was waiting, arms crossed and eyes unreadable.  Jack walked over to him.  Smiling tightly, Jack said, “Saturday morning, Dr. Daniel Jackson was abducted from the driveway of a home at which he was staying.  We retrieved him roughly ninety minutes ago.  The two men we placed under arrest were Major Nathaniel Grady and Mr. Glen Phillips.  I’m told that my superior is in contact with your superiors with the clearance for us to act.”

“Sir, I know for a fact that you did not have clearance to act as of thirty-five minutes ago.  Which makes your arrests in clear violation of --”

“We did not have time to wait for clearance, detective,” Jack snapped.  “Our man was in jeopardy, and we couldn’t be sure that his life was not at risk.”

“You should have contacted the CSPD.  It’s in our jurisdiction.”

“I’m afraid you don’t understand the situation,” Jack said.  “There are classified matters involved, and not all the persons involved had the requisite security levels.  We couldn’t wait.  National security.  We may not have had official clearance, but our actions were imperative.”

Jordan pursed his lips and glanced at his partner who was on the phone.  The man nodded and Jordan’s expression darkened slightly.  “Your clearance to act has been confirmed, Colonel O’Neill.  Can I ask that you inform us what your intentions are regarding this matter?”

“That’s not up to me,” Jack said.  “I’m only in charge for the moment, until a proper military police official arrives.”  Carter walked up at his shoulder.  “Until then, I’m stuck with the --”

A dark sedan drove up and a uniformed Air Force officer climbed out of the driver’s seat, then walked around to open the passenger door.  Was this his relief?  Was this his opportunity to return to base and make sure Daniel was okay?

Rage suffused him at the sight of the man who stood up out of the passenger seat.  Colonel Dwight Parker was in plainclothes, as he so often was, and the NID agent looked eminently pleased with himself.  First Maybourne and now Parker.  Surely there were some decent men working for the NID.  Why did they always wind up with the jackasses?

Jordan turned back towards Jack, opening his mouth, but his eyes widened at the sight of Jack’s face.  Carter, beside him, said, “Colonel?  We can’t let --”

He held up a hand and turned to meet Parker who was striding forward.  He was a distinguished looking man of middle years, with receding hairline that made him look venerable rather than weedy.

“Colonel O’Neill,” Parker said.  “I’ll take things from here.”

“Like hell you will,” Jack replied.  “Carter, go inside and lock the doors.  Do not let this rat bastard inside if you have to shoot him.”

“Yes sir,” she said and he heard her walk swiftly away, gathering marines to her as she went.

“Why, Jack, I’d think you’d be in a hurry to go off and comfort Dr. Jackson,” Parker said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  “This is pointless.  I have the authority to take over the investigation here, and it’s really more the NID’s sort of thing than the SGC’s.”  He glanced over at the house, but Jack refused to be distracted.  “Besides, Major Carter wouldn’t be so foolish as to follow that order entirely.”

“You going to bet your life on that?” Jack asked, giving the NID colonel an unfriendly grin.

“Gentlemen, this is a little out of hand,” Jordan said.  “I thought you were waiting for the military police, Colonel O’Neill.”

“I was.”  Jack thought quickly and revised that comment.  “I am.  This isn’t them, and I am not handing this over to you, Parker.  This is an internal SGC matter.  Nothing that the NID needs to get involved with.”

“If it concerns the --” Parker started as his staff came up to flank him.

“If you say it, I will arrest you for breach of security myself,” Jack said in a hard voice.  Parker’s eyes narrowed.  “And then I’ll be forced to detain this nice man and his lieutenant for hearing it.”  Jordan’s eyebrows rose, and the lieutenant looked faintly alarmed.

Parker glowered at him.  “This is pointless, O’Neill, I have orders from the --

“Just a minute, colonel.  I have a phone call to make.”  Jack flipped his phone open and hit redial.

“Hammond.”

“Sir, Colonel Parker is here, declaring that NID has jurisdiction in this matter and demanding entry.”

“Like hell!” Hammond growled.  “This is an internal matter.”

Jack grinned.  “I’m glad to hear you say that, sir.  Would you care to speak to Colonel Parker?”

“Hammond has no authority over me, and none in this matter,” Parker said.

Apparently his voice was loud enough to carry into the phone, because Hammond said, “Yes, Jack, I’d like to straighten that popinjay out.”

Jack handed his phone across and Parker stepped away.  Jordan looked at Jack and said, “You wouldn’t really detain us, would you?”

Jack shrugged.  “I’d have to, detective.  It wouldn’t be optional.  We aren’t talking about top secret here, we’re talking higher than that.  Now, unless you want to risk Parker losing his temper and going too far, you might want to go nab some crooks that aren’t threatening national security.”

Jordan’s lips thinned, but he nodded sharply and left.  Jack glared over at Parker who was now gesticulating wildly with one hand.  Another car pulled up and Jack gave it part of his attention.  To his great relief, Colonel Jane Osborne got out of the passenger seat.  Her assistant, Master Sergeant Reynaldo Cruz got out on the other side and they started towards him.  Osborne was the officer in charge of internal investigations.

Her graying blond hair was tied up on top of her head in a neat bun, and her piercing green eyes were focused on the house as she walked towards Jack.  “Sir, I relieve you,” she said, saluting.  “I’ve already been briefed as to the nature of the situation.”  She followed Jack’s gaze towards Parker and smiled grimly.  “All of it.  I’ll take care of things at this end.”  She stepped closer and spoke very quietly.  “I understand that Dr. Jackson has asked for you.”

Jack’s eyes widened and he nodded.  “I’ll just fetch Major Carter, then.”

“Yes, sir,” Colonel Osborne said.

Jack trusted Osborne to keep Parker under control.  She was a solid officer, and took no nonsense from anyone.  Jack himself had been in her hot seat a time or two since she’d started.  So long as she understood the stakes . . .

“Do you know what went on here?” he asked.

“I’ve seen some images,” she said, her face twisting with disgust.  “Believe me, I’m going to make certain that this goes right in every way.  We owe it to Dr. Jackson.”

“Just make sure Parker gets nothing,” Jack said.  “I don’t even want to know what the less savory side of the NID -- and its shadier connections -- would do with this.”

“You may rely on me, Colonel O’Neill,” she said, and he took his leave.

Carter seemed satisfied to be going at last as they got into the SUV.  Then Jack remembered that Parker still had his phone.  He climbed out of the vehicle and walked over to the NID colonel.  With ill grace, Parker handed over the cellular phone.  “This isn’t over, O’Neill,” he said.

“Yes it is, Colonel Parker,” Osborne said, walking up.  Parker looked a little stymied by the female officer, and Jack left her to it.  He went back to the SUV and got moving.

Why was Daniel asking for him?  What had happened?


	66. Chapter 66

Janet’s idea of appropriate bandages left Daniel with more freedom of movement than Grady’s had.  Still, he hated them.  He pulled on his BDU jacket so that the sleeves would cover them.

Then he remembered Grady’s words about his having to wear long sleeves on Monday and nearly wrenched his shoulder getting the thing off.  It wasn’t a thinking, reasoned response, more of a gut level impulse.  He loathed both reactions.  It was wretched to allow either Grady’s words or his actions to affect his behavior that way.

After careful consideration, he decided not to try and hide the bandages.  He wasn’t cold enough to need the jacket, and concealing them from his visual perception wouldn’t make him stop noticing them.  They affected his movement either way.

“Daniel, what are you analyzing so hard?”

He jumped.  In his weariness, he’d lost track of the fact that he wasn’t alone.  “Nothing,” he said.  Great, that meant that both Teal’c and Fraiser saw him wrestle his jacket off so violently.

Teal’c was gazing at him stolidly, the sympathy in his eyes the only crack in his neutral expression.  Daniel looked away into Janet’s warm eyes.

“What’s bothering you?” she asked.  Then, as he stared at her blankly for a moment, she flushed.  “Dumb question.”

“No, it is not,” Teal’c said unexpectedly.  “DanielJackson is capable of understanding that you mean to ask what took place just now to cause his extreme reaction to his garments.”

Janet and Daniel both stared at the normal taciturn Jaffa.  Occasionally Teal’c would speak his mind, if he felt the severity of the situation warranted it.  Daniel was a little startled that Teal’c seemed to consider this one of those circumstances.

“Umm . . .” he said.  “Yes, Teal’c, I recognize that.  I just don’t know what to say.”

“What caused your perturbation?” Teal’c asked.  “Until we know what causes your unease, we will not be able to give you ease.”

Daniel blinked and said, “It’s nothing, Teal’c, really.  Just something Major Grady said.”

Janet’s eyes snapped.  “I don’t want to hear you say ‘it’s nothing,’ Daniel,” she said.  “If it caused that strong a reaction, it’s not nothing.”

Daniel closed his eyes.  “It’s dumb,” he replied, wrapping his arms around himself.

“Please tell us, DanielJackson.”

Daniel looked into Teal’c’s eyes, and suddenly the exhaustion his shower had pushed back a bit came washing over him in earnest.  “I need to go to sleep,” he said.

It was as if this was a signal.  They went into action instantly.  In no time he found himself bundled off to Teal’c’s room, where they tucked him into Teal’c’s bed.

“Wait, no,” he said.  “Teal’c will need --”

Teal’c leaned over him.  “Go to sleep, DanielJackson,” he said, and, in the face of that firm instruction, Daniel gave up the struggle.

* * *

Jack went straight to the infirmary, Carter close behind him, but Daniel wasn’t there.  The room was darkened, and they saw no signs of patients at all.  The night nurse, working at a desk in the corner, stood up and came across to them.

“Colonel O’Neill, Major Carter, Dr. Jackson is with Teal’c.”  Her voice was low, and Jack wondered if it was just habit or if there was a patient tucked away somewhere.

“Where?” Carter asked.

“In his room, Sam,” Fraiser said behind them.

They turned to find the tiny woman standing in the doorway.  Moments like these always startled Jack, because most of the time she seemed nine feet tall.  “We put Daniel to bed, colonel.”

“How is he?” Jack asked.  “I expected that you wouldn’t release him.”

She grimaced.  “He said he wanted a bit more privacy, and . . . after . . . I couldn’t refuse him.  General Hammond also insisted that we abide by his wishes.”

Jack nodded slowly.  “But how is he?” he asked.

“Physically, his body has been . . . worked too hard in very unaccustomed ways, but the only injuries are some bruises, some strained muscles and joints, and lacerations on his wrists from struggling with his initial bonds.”

That explained the bandages, then.  “So, there’s no tearing, no deep damage?”

“Not physically,” she said carefully, and he grit his teeth.  “Look, I know you won’t be comfortable until you’ve seen him.  Why don’t you go look in on him, then meet me at General Hammond’s office.  That way I can give my report to both of you at once.”

Jack glanced at Carter, who was clearly itching to see Daniel, and nodded.  “Sure, Fraiser.”

They checked in their weapons at the armory, then went to Teal’c’s quarters where they found Teal’c sitting cross legged on the floor, watching over Daniel, who was sleeping so deeply that their entry didn’t even stir him.

“DanielJackson is sleeping,” Teal’c informed them unnecessarily.  Jack walked over and looked down at his friend.  His eyes were closed and he looked very peaceful.  All too aware now of the man’s frequent nightmares, Jack wondered what was going on beneath those lowered eyelids.

Stepping back from the bed, he said, “I need to go meet with the general and Dr. Fraiser.  If he wakes and asks for me . . .”

“One of us will come for you, O’Neill,” Teal’c said.

“Thank you,” Jack said.  Carter settled down, gazing worriedly at the slumbering figure on the bed.

Jack left and went to Hammond’s office.  Fraiser hadn’t yet arrived when he went in to find Hammond on the phone.

“. . . for reasons of morale, sir.”  There was a pause, then, “Colonel Osborne is a very capable officer.  She’ll do an excellent job.  I see no reason why we’d need an independent investigator . . . Dr. Jackson is resting now, but if it would reassure you, I can arrange for you to talk with him sometime tomorrow.”  Jack sank into a chair, wondering who Hammond was talking to.  Someone important from the tone of his voice.  “No, sir, we are not isolating Dr. Jackson,” Hammond said firmly.  “He’s with one of his teammates right now.  He’s been through a terrible and exhausting ordeal.  Now he’s sleeping, and I don’t want to wake him for anything short of an emergency . . . Colonel Parker is a braying jackass and you can quote me on that.  If he is portraying himself as worried about Dr. Jackson’s health and mental welfare, then you can have my assurance that he is lying through his teeth.  He has no more concern for Dr. Jackson than --”  Hammond broke off and listened for a moment, then he scowled, but his voice showed no signs of his clear anger.  “I am well aware of Dr. Jackson’s importance, sir.  That’s why I want this to be an internal investigation.  I think we would do better to keep the details of this incident to as few people as humanly possible in order to allow Dr. Jackson his privacy.”

Go George, Jack thought.  Who the hell was putting pressure on him?  The entire notion of Parker being falsely solicitous made his blood boil.

The other person seemed to be talking for a long time.  Finally, Hammond’s lips compressed and he glanced up at Jack.  “I am sure that Colonel O’Neill was just showing his usual zeal in protecting both his teammates and the interests of the program . . . Yes sir, I will speak to him about it . . .Yes sir, thank you, sir.”  Hammond hung up the phone and looked up at Jack.  ‘Did you really order Major Carter to shoot Colonel Parker if he tried to get into that house?”

Jack shrugged.  “It seemed appropriate enough at the time.”

The general tried to look stern but failed.  Finally, he said, “Good instincts, Jack.  The last thing our boy needs is the NID or Kinsey in the know on this.”  Jack nodded.  “But perhaps you should give orders like that where they can’t hear you.”

“That would have defeated the point, sir,” Jack said.  “It was in the nature of a threat.  Something to make Parker think twice.”

“Very well, colonel,” Hammond said, eyes twinkling just slightly.  “Now, have you seen Dr. Jackson?”

Jack nodded.  “He’s asleep.”

“Good.  He was adamant that he not stay in the infirmary, ‘on public display’ as he put it, but neither would he go to your home or his own.  ‘Not without Jack,’ he said.”

Jack blinked.  “What about Teal’c?” he asked.  “Teal’c would have stayed with him anywhere he went.”

“I know that, colonel, but it was such a knee-jerk reaction that I didn’t want to challenge it.  Not just now.”

“I see, sir,” Jack said.  They were silent for a moment, then Jack cleared his throat.  “I don’t know how up to date you are, but at last count about nine hundred or so copies of that first ‘movie’ were sent out digitally and five hundred and fifty of the second.”

Hammond nodded, but he took a deep breath and Jack felt an uneasy sense that the general knew more than he did.  And that it was nothing good.  “Jack, those are only the ones that were altered.”

A chill passed through Jack.  “What do you mean, sir?” he asked.

A grimace of distaste crossed the general’s face.  “Evidently Mr. Phillips sent out about twenty uncensored copies of both the finished movies.”

A growl of rage erupted from Jack’s throat and he propelled himself out of the chair.  “Can I go kill that son of a bitch bastard?” he demanded.

“No, Jack,” Hammond said, getting up and coming around the desk.  He put a hand on Jack’s shoulder.  “No.  Much as I sympathize, we don’t do things that way.  He will be going to prison for a very long time, however.  He interfered, however unknowingly, with a top secret project.  That gives us enough ammunition to put him away for good.”

“Damn it!”  Jack turned away from Hammond and slammed his fist into a wall.

“Did that help?” the general asked mildly.

Jack let his head flop back on his neck.  “Maybe I should just retire,” he groaned.

“What?”  Hammond came up beside him.  “No, Jack, I don’t need you pulling this on me now.”

“You don’t understand, general.  I’ve been uneasy about Grady since the debriefing that followed the retrieval of the naquadah reactor.”

Hammond sighed and said, “Come sit down, Jack, and tell me what you’re talking about.”

Jack sat down across from Hammond and said, “I noticed him acting a little oddly, smirking, when we were discussing Daniel’s condition at the debriefing.  I didn’t say anything then, because it looked like Colonel Miller was handling it.”

“Is that all?”

“No, I . . . he was riding Daniel a little about a translation, and I didn’t like it.  I thought he was being awfully pushy, but . . .”

“Is this part of why you decided so suddenly that Dr. Jackson needed an assistant?”

“Yes sir,” Jack said.  “I didn’t like the way he was behaving towards Daniel, though, and I never said anything.  Maybe if I had -- maybe if I’d warned Daniel about him --”

“It would have done what?” Hammond asked.  “Colonel, Dr. Jackson wasn’t captured by Grady because he trusted him too much.  Have you heard how that was accomplished?”  Jack shook his head.  “Major Grady was hiding in his car.  He grabbed Dr. Jackson from the backseat and knocked him out.  From what you’ve said, you had nothing but instinct to go on, and instinct isn’t actionable.  I really don’t need this, Jack.  I’ve already had Miller in here, and Fraiser, and Sciaparelli if you can believe it, trying to resign for lack of judgment.  None of them is in any way to blame for what happened, nor are you.”

“Sciaparelli?  What on earth does he blame himself for?”

“He thinks he should have brought that recorded confrontation to someone’s attention sooner.”  Hammond shook his head.  “Dr. Jackson brings out the best in good, decent people,” he said.  “And it makes us all feel like hell when we fail him, but I’m not letting any of you fail him by giving up.  Is that understood, colonel?”

Jack grimaced, but he didn’t say anything.

“Don’t think you have a monopoly on guilt, Jack,” Hammond said after a moment.  “I gave Grady a medal in this very office not more than two months ago.  None of us saw a thing, which means that he was one hell of an actor, or so good at dissociating that it’s terrifying to consider.”

Jack nodded.  “I just -- I don’t know how I’m going to face him.  I saw him . . . I saw what that bastard did to him, and during the last incident I sat outside Glen’s house and watched while Grady degraded him, knowing that we might have been able to get the information we needed to find him if we’d just stormed the house and grabbed the prick.”

“And you might have alerted them to the fact that they were being watched and tipped Grady over the edge into murder,” Hammond said.  “You made the right decision, Jack.  Dr. Jackson will understand that, even if you can’t accept it yourself.”

Jack slumped in the chair.  “I feel like such a schmuck,” he said.

“Well, Dr. Jackson needs you to get past that so you can support him.”

The door opened and Fraiser walked in.  “Sorry I’m so late.”  She walked across and sat down, a pair of medical files on her knees.  “Where would you like me to start, sir?  With Dr. Jackson or with the prisoners?”

“The prisoners,” Hammond said.

“Grady is fine,” she replied.  “Phillips has broken both the bones in his forearm, but they have been set and cast, and he isn’t in any undue pain.  He is, however, claiming that he isn’t being treated humanely.”

“I’ll give him humane treatment,” Jack muttered.  “Put him out of his misery.”

They ignored him.  “I’ll look in on him later,” Hammond said.  “To make sure everything is well.  Please, tell us about Dr. Jackson’s condition.”

“Physically, he is worn out and his muscles are all overworked.  He should recover from that in a few days at most.  He has lacerations on his wrists from struggling with some kind of rope, he couldn’t be specific.  I gather he never actually saw it.  Grady had cleaned and bandaged the injuries, and they were in reasonably good shape for having been clasped in manacles for the better part of nineteen hours.  They aren’t infected, so I expect them to heal normally.”

“With or without scars?” Jack asked, feeling sick.

“Without, I’d say, if I can keep them medicated properly.”

“All right, so that’s his physical condition,” Hammond said.  “How would you rate his mental condition?”

“That’s harder to say,” she replied.  “There hasn’t been time for proper observation, but I believe that this will hit him pretty hard.  He was crying by the time I finished my exam, and he had . . . I don’t know what to make of it exactly.  We had him shower, and then he got dressed in his ordinary clothes.  I bandaged his wrists, and then he put on his BDU jacket, tugging the sleeves down over the bandages.  Within a second, he struggled his way out of it, as if he’d forgotten how to take it off, and he’d evidently forgotten that Teal’c and I were in the room.  That was probably due to exhaustion, but I gather that Grady said something that made him react so oddly to his jacket.”

Jack found himself wanting to get up and commit mayhem in the holding cells, but held himself back.  Hammond looked dismayed.  “Did he tell you what it was?”

She shook her head.  “He said it was nothing and then asked to go to bed.  I don’t think he’s going to talk to me about it very readily.  I . . .”  She glanced at Jack and then turned back to Hammond.  “He says he’s over the trouble he had before, sir, but I still think he’s going to avoid confiding in me.  I’m a woman and . . . and I just don’t think he’s likely to confide in me.  But I’m not altogether comfortable with leaving his care wholly in the hands of Colonel O’Neill, either.”

Jack opened his mouth, then closed it again.  “She’s right, sir,” he said.  “I will do anything to help Daniel, but I’m not sure how to handle this.  I mean . . . this is big.  I do feel a little out of my depth here, and even with the Rigar thing, Daniel was managing to work half our conversations around to my own feelings of guilt for not having stopped what happened to him.”

Hammond nodded slowly.  “So we are going to have to find some way to get him to see Dr. Lisle without making him feel as though we think he’s unstable or crazy.”

Jack sighed.  “Give me a couple of days, and I’ll work something out.”

“So, what do we tell the base?” Hammond asked.  “And what about Monday?  Do you think Dr. Jackson needs more time off?”

“Yes sir,” Fraiser said.

Jack shook his head.  “I think we’d do better to let Daniel decide.  It might cause him too much stress to be away from work again so soon.  As for the base, I think we let a rumor slip that he was attacked by a member of the rogue NID, a payback on the most vulnerable member of my team for my part in uncovering the artifact theft ring.”

Hammond nodded thoughtfully.  “And no mention of rape.  Dr. Jackson will undoubtedly be moving with enough caution that people can draw their own conclusions, and since no one anywhere suspected what Grady was into, there won’t be any side rumors on the subject.”

“But his emotional reactions . . . that could be problematic, sirs,” Dr. Fraiser said.

“I don’t think so,” Jack said.  “He was raped less than three weeks ago, and now he’s been attacked by a member of the SGC.  There are plenty of ways to torture someone without leaving obvious marks, and that’s what people will likely assume.  If he’s jumpy and pulls away from touch, that will be enough explanation, I suspect.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Fraiser said.

“And a few days off will only make people more curious, so if he doesn’t want to take them, I say we don’t push him to,” Jack said.

“Who exactly knows what’s happened?” Hammond asked.

Jack pursed his lips thoughtfully.  “Well, obviously, everyone in this room.  Carter, Teal’c, Sciaparelli.  Miller, Pilkins and Smith from Grady’s team.  With the questions I was asking, they couldn’t avoid guessing, and I told some of them outright.  The members of SG-2 and SG-3.  All the members of the forensic teams, Colonel Osborne, Sgt. Cruz . . . it’s a pretty wide circle, but I think it’s one we can secure.”

Hammond nodded.  “I selected the people I sent out with care, and told them all in advance that they were going to see things that they couldn’t talk about to anyone, not even each other, without permission.”

“Good,” Jack said.  They all fell silent for a moment, then Jack said, “I’d better get some sleep.  I have a feeling Daniel will want to talk in the morning, and if I’m going to keep a handle on my own emotions, I’m going to need to have enough rest.”

“Good thinking, colonel,” Fraiser said.  “I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to recommend that you, and all your team for that matter, and all of SG-6, see Dr. Lisle.  Those are the most urgent people I can think of right now, but I have a feeling that everyone involved in this matter is going to cycle through her office at some point or other.”

“True enough,” Hammond said.

Jack grimaced but he nodded.  “I’m heading off to bed,” he said.  Then, snagging some blankets and a couple of pillows from a closet near the barracks, he went back to Teal’c’s room.

Carter was leaning against Teal’c’s shoulder, sleeping.  Teal’c was gazing silently on the still form of Daniel in the bed.  Jack closed the door quietly and woke Carter, putting her to bed on the floor.  Teal’c didn’t seem to mind this wholesale invasion of his space.  He smiled benignly as Jack made himself a makeshift bed of blankets and lay down to go to sleep.


	67. Chapter 67

Daniel woke up and sat bolt upright.  His heart was beating wildly in his chest and he brought his wrists forward where he could look at them.

“You are safe, DanielJackson, and among friends.”

Daniel looked over and saw Teal’c gazing sympathetically at him.  He nodded, taking deep breaths to calm his rapid heart rate and churning gut.  He inched to the side of the bed and got up.  His whole body was a mass of aching pain, particularly his hind end.  He felt as if he’d gone mountain-climbing for a whole day without previous experience.

When he stood up, he swayed slightly, but shook his head when Teal’c made to get up.  “I can make it to the toilet, I think,” he said.  Then he saw Sam and Jack on the floor.  “What are they doing here?” he asked.

“They did not wish to leave you,” Teal’c said.  “They arrived shortly after you went to sleep.”

Daniel nodded and went into the bathroom.  He discovered something.  Urinating was no picnic, and defecating was . . . hideous.  He suffered through the process and took a hot shower, trying to ease the muscle ache.  He pulled on a fresh set of fatigues that had been lying on the counter.  When he came out, both Sam and Jack were up.  He glanced over at the digital clock and saw that it was nearly noon.

“Good morning, Daniel,” Jack said, gazing at him with concern as he walked over.  “How do you feel?”

Daniel gave him a half-smile.  “Like somebody mistook me for a stage and performed Riverdance on top of me.”

“You hungry at all?” Sam asked, walking over to put a hand on his shoulder.

He shrugged.  “Not really, but then I almost never am when I first get up.”  They all looked worried though.  “If you guys want breakfast, though, I’ll go with you.  Maybe I’ll get hungry when I smell food.”

Jack put an arm around his shoulder and said, “Just let me get cleaned up, Daniel, and we’ll head over to the commissary.”

Daniel nodded and walked over to sit down on the bed, very gingerly.  Teal’c handed him a pill and a cup of water.  “This is the medicine that Dr. Fraiser gave you last night.”

Daniel looked down at the pill, popped it in his mouth and drank it down.  “Thank you, Teal’c,” he said.  “I didn’t even notice her giving them to me.”  Sam sat down next to him.  She was silent, but it wasn’t a comfortable silence, as if she didn’t know what to say.  He put an arm around her shoulder.  “Thanks to all of you, for coming for me.”  To his surprise, she started crying.  “Sam?  Sam, what is it?”

“I -- I’m sorry, Daniel,” she said.

“What for?” he asked.

“We didn’t protect you well enough,” she said.  “We should have . . . I . . . we . . .”

“Sam, you did everything right.  No one could have predicted Grady would behave that way.”

She hugged him tightly and left the room quickly.  Daniel looked after her in startlement, then looked at Teal’c.  “What was that?”

“I believe that she does not wish to upset you,” the big man said uncertainly.

“Maybe,” Daniel replied, sighing.

Jack came out of the bathroom and looked around.  “What happened to Carter?”

“She left,” Daniel said.  “I think she . . . I . . . she was crying.”

Jack blinked, then said, “So, you okay?”

Daniel looked at him, looked at Teal’c, then shrugged.  “Not especially, no.”  He gave Jack’s surprised expression a grin.  “What, Jack?  I just got attacked by someone who helped get us out of a mess two months ago, who guarded our backs.  Now I find myself wondering if he spent that time staring at my ass.”

“Even if he did, it doesn’t mean anything,” Jack said.  Daniel sat down, staring at him.  “Come on, Daniel, do you honestly think that, when we’ve got a squad of marines behind us, at least half of them aren’t looking at Carter’s butt?”

Daniel shook his head.  “That’s just wrong,” he said.

Jack sat down beside him, putting an arm around his shoulders.  “Daniel, that doesn’t mean anything.  It doesn’t mean they’re going to do to her what Grady did to you.  Hell, for all we know there are some guys on the base who don’t ask and don’t tell, and they think you’re attractive.  Or I am.  Or Teal’c is.  But that still doesn’t mean they’d do what Grady did.”

Daniel froze at the mention of men finding him attractive, but what Jack said made sense.  He concentrated on making his back relax.  “Yeah, Grady was pretty bizarre,” he said.

“Grady is wired wrong somehow,” Jack said bluntly.  He leaned closer and added, “I wanted to reach in, yank out his wiring, and see if I could put it right again, but Hammond wouldn’t let me.”

Daniel found this notion oddly appealing.  “What about Glen?”

“He just needs to get dead,” Jack said.

“That sounds good,” Daniel said.  Then a thought occurred to him.  “Did he manage to send out any of those movies?” he asked hesitantly.

Jack’s face went very still which answered that question neatly.  “Yes,” he said.  He opened his mouth and started speaking again, but Daniel didn’t hear anything.  There was a ringing in his ears.  The thought of people, dozens, maybe hundreds of people watching with avid fascination while a man with no face raped another man with no face -- they’d think it was a pair of actors or something, surely, but it would be his body on all those screens, his violation, his misery, his rape . . . it would last forever . . .

Daniel got up suddenly and ran across into the bathroom again and flung the toilet seat up.

There was nothing much in his gut, but he threw it all up.

* * *

Jack followed Daniel into the bathroom and, when it became clear that he couldn’t help, he filled a glass with water.  Daniel retched into the toilet for several minutes, then sat back looking utterly pathetic.  Jack handed him the glass and Daniel stood up, flushing the toilet.  He rinsed his mouth out and then took a drink of water.

“What was that?” Jack asked quietly.

Daniel didn’t immediately reply.  He put the seat down on the toilet and closed his eyes, taking off his glasses to rub them.  “It was . . . Jack, how many copies of that movie are there out there?  How many people are jacking off to scenes of . . . to that while we sit here and talk?”

“I don’t know exactly,” Jack said carefully.  “Do you still feel sick?”

Daniel shook his head.  “No, I just feel numb.  I’m on screens all over the country, begging Grady to stop, responding against my will, naked and completely helpless.  My face may be blocked, but it’s me, and I know it even if those idiots who bought it don’t.”

Jack grimaced and pulled himself up on the sink counter.  “Carter’s got some of the computer geeks working on that.  I gather they’re trying to create a virus that will fry the computer of anyone who has it on their hard drive.”

Daniel blinked.  “That could be pretty hard on their families.”

Jack shrugged.  “Not our problem, Danny,” he said.  “Not our problem.”

“But what if they already burned a CD of it?”

“There will be follow up visits.  I said they’re working on it.  Plans aren’t finalized yet.”  And Jack hadn’t decided yet how to tell Daniel that there were uncensored versions of the movie out there.  Ones where his face was completely visible.  Just the thought of that made his blood boil.

“Jack, what’s wrong?” Daniel asked, and he realized that he wasn’t guarding his expression well enough.  He paused, considering what to say, and Daniel spoke again.  “Don’t lie to me, Jack.  I can see there’s something more, something you haven’t told me, and I need to know what it is.  Don’t treat me like a child.”

Jack looked down at his friend and then across at Teal’c who was standing in the doorway of the bathroom.  The Jaffa was no help with his phlegmatic expression.  Jack sighed and wet his lips.  “There were versions of the movie that weren’t censored.  Did Grady tell you that?”

Daniel nodded slowly.  “For him and Glen and their circle of intimate friends, he said.”

Jack took a deep breath.  “Glen sent out twenty copies of the uncensored version of the first two movies.”

There was silence in the bathroom.  Teal’c hadn’t known that either, and his expression was a mask of dismay.  Daniel’s face crumpled and he began to weep silently.  Jack knelt beside him and put an arm around him, careful not to make him feel trapped.  Teal’c walked over and went to one knee, taking Daniel’s hand.  “We will not let it rest that way, DanielJackson,” he said.  “Those copies will be found and destroyed.”

Daniel shook his head.  “But they will have been seen.”  His voice was so quiet it was almost inaudible.  “There will still be people out there who have seen and enjoyed witnessing . . . who will want to see more . . .”  He flung his glasses onto the counter and buried his face in his hands.  He spoke in a voice that was muffled by his hands.  “And some of them probably knew that it was really rape.”

And got off on that fact, Jack thought but did not say aloud.  He squeezed Daniel’s shoulders.  “Try not to think about it.”

“How can I not?  Grady used it as his hold.  He was going to send out the uncensored version to all sorts of people if I told what had really happened down there.”  His voice was rising steadily and he raised his head.  “I was supposed to come back to work on Monday as if nothing had happened, wear long sleeves to cover the wounds I gave myself with my ‘foolish struggling,’ and go back there when Grady asked me again.  Because I have a ‘need for sexual danger’ that was putting me and my team at risk.”

Jack decided to try and change the focus of the conversation.  “Fraiser said you actually got yourself free,” he said.  “What happened?”

Daniel closed his eyes.  “I knocked him out,” he said.  “But he’d already put locked cuffs on my ankles, so I didn’t get anywhere.  I was . . . God, I wanted to kill him.  That was before he’d come to the realization that I really didn’t want it, that I wasn’t just playing some part.  He was pissed that I’d ‘bloodied myself’ as he put it.  I stabbed at him with the scissors, but he . . . Jack, there was nothing I could do.”

“I know, Daniel.”

“I didn’t want him.  No matter what you see, you have to understand.”  Daniel was speaking urgently, his voice harsh with worry.  “I didn’t want him.  There are physiological responses that the body can’t resist.  I couldn’t help what happened.  It had nothing to do with --”

“I know, Daniel,” Jack said again.  And again.  He repeated the reassurance until Daniel looked at him and really saw him.  “Truly, Daniel, I know.  Better than you might imagine.”

Daniel blinked.  “You . . . not you?”

“I was in prison for several months, and there was a sicko in there who thought I was fun to play with,” Jack said.  “He had quite the cadre of friends, which made it a little hard to avoid him when he was in the mood.”

Daniel bit his lip.  “So you really did have it worse than me.”

“Different, Daniel,” Jack said.  “My assailants were criminals, and I knew, going in, that there was a chance of this.  With Grady, it’s altogether different.  I never trusted them, and they made no bones about what they were doing.”

Shaking his head, Daniel said, “I wish it had never happened.  To you, to me, to anyone.  The Goa’uld are terrible, but what we do to each other can be pretty damned bad.”

“I know, believe me.  But I’m glad you already know that you didn’t do anything wrong, that it wasn’t you.  I was dreading having to persuade you of that.”

Daniel gave him a mirthless grin.  “I went through it before, with Hathor.  Afterwards, I checked through the literature to find out what it meant, that my body had responded to her.”

Jack squeezed him again.  “God, Daniel, you shouldn’t have had to deal with that alone.”

“I had to do the research myself, Jack,” he said.  “I had to find out for myself.”

Jack rolled his eyes.  “I can totally believe that,” he said.  “You are one stubborn son of a gun, Daniel Jackson.”

“And here we are, sitting in Teal’c’s bathroom when both of you are probably very hungry for breakfast,” Daniel said.  He stood up, gently pushing them both away.  “Maybe we should move on to the commissary.”  He went to the sink and got a washcloth wet to wipe his eyes.  “Let me brush my teeth and I’ll be with you in a minute.”

They were on their way down to the commissary when the alarms went off.  “Unscheduled offworld activation.”

“Damn!” Jack exclaimed.  “I’d better --”

“Lead on,” Daniel said.

Against his better judgment, Jack let Daniel follow him to the control room.  Teal’c was there to handle it if Daniel’s emotions got out of hand, but . . . it wouldn’t happen.  Daniel would be fine.

They got to the control room at the same time as General Hammond, coming down from his office.  Hammond glanced askance at Daniel, but didn’t say anything.

Captain Steven Williams came out of the gate at a dead run clutching some papers in his hand.  Daniel was gone from Jack’s side before he even noticed it, running down into the gate room.  Teal’c followed him instantly and Jack followed them.

“. . . don’t know,” Williams gasped.  “All I know is that Major Kovacek said something, Lt. Prakash translated it, and then everything went to hell in a handbasket.  The major is in prison, Lt. Prakash and Sgt. Morgan are under house arrest, and they gave me a writ to give to our commanding officer.”  He handed that to Daniel.  Hammond came into the gate room and Williams turned to him.  “We’ve had a bit of a crisis in the negotiations, sir.”  Then he repeated what he’d just told Daniel.

Hammond turned to the archeologist.  “Can you tell me what it says?” he asked.

“Not yet,” Daniel said, eyes rapidly scanning the page.  “I’ll need a reference from my office.  Some of this is that same archaic stuff that came up on Thursday.”  He looked up at Williams, and if Jack hadn’t know that less than a quarter hour before the archeologist had been crying on his shoulder, he’d never have believed it.  He was all business now.  “Steve, did Sindar give you anything, tell you what he said?  I mean, what did Kovacek try to say and how did Sindar translate it?”

Williams nodded and started scrabbling in a pocket.  He pulled out a scrap of paper that was dirty and torn.  “Here, Dr. Jackson.”

Daniel looked down and his eyes widened.  “Oh damn,” he muttered.  “If this means what . . . I can see . . . hell . . .”  And then he took off at a run out of the gate room without explanation.  Teal’c chased after him, and Jack turned to Hammond.  “Where do you want me?”

“With Dr. Jackson.  I’ll see to Captain Williams.”

Jack nodded and followed Daniel.

The archeologist was in his office.  He’d shoved whatever he’d been working on to the side of the desk in a pile and was going through a couple of books full of words that Jack couldn’t quite make out due to their being in an entirely unfamiliar language.  Daniel was poring over them, comparing things and he let out a curse.  “It’s that damned archaism,” he growled.  “They keep drifting in and out of it, and it plays havoc with Sindar’s translation capacities.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Damn Rigar and damn Grady too!” Daniel said.  “If not for them I’d probably be there, and I wouldn’t have been tripped up by this, I don’t think.”

“You’re not there, so you’ll have to play catch up.  What is it?”

Daniel grimaced.  “The words have shifted meaning.  What Sindar said would have been a perfectly adequate translation of what Kovacek said in the modern language, but in the archaic form it means something very different.”

Again, Daniel lapsed into silence, his right hand scribbling madly on a sheet of paper as he ran his left hand back and forth between the text and the book.

Jack fell silent and waited.  Daniel worked hurriedly and then scooped up his papers and dashed out of the room, leaving Jack and Teal’c to follow as best they could.

Hammond and Williams were in the gate room still, and Daniel started his rapid-fire babble as soon as he hit the doorway.  “General Hammond, sir, we have a real problem.  They are taking this as a serious insult.  It’s going to take some fast talking to persuade them that it was an innocent mistake, not least because Sindar let slip that he was the second choice for translator on this mission and, also, I think they’re seizing on this as an excuse to try and wrangle more concessions from us than we want to give.”

“What did Kovacek say?” Hammond asked when Daniel ran down.

“Minister Rakash asked if they would bring their sisters on their next visit, a not so subtle hint that marriage prospects would be welcome in the court,” Daniel said.  “Kovacek said that it was not his decision to make.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Hammond said.  “What was the problem?”

“The problem is that the Siktari use two modes of language, a formal mode which is extremely archaic and an informal mode which is surprisingly similar to some modern day dialects in India.  They interpreted Sindar’s comment in the formal mode, which came out meaning something like, ‘not if I have my choice in the matter.’  Very different, and very insulting.”

“I see.  So, we send someone to explain that there was a misunderstanding . . .”  Hammond trailed off at the expression on Daniel’s face.  “Yes, Dr. Jackson?”

“I need to go, general,” Daniel said and Jack’s jaw dropped.  He’d just, within twelve hours, come back from a day-long ordeal . . .

“Dr. Jackson, after what’s happened I can’t --”

“Sir,” Daniel said persuasively, “I would have gone in the first place but for the medical stand down after the incident on P2X-416.  I can do this, and they’re demanding our senior translator in light of the miscommunication and Sindar’s admission that he’s really very junior.”  Daniel handed across the paper he’d scribbled out.

Hammond read it then passed it on to Jack.  He gazed thoughtfully into the distance.  “Dr. Jackson, I want you to go to Dr. Fraiser right now to be checked out.  I want to know what possible physical problems could crop up should I allow you to go.”

Daniel nodded and moved away quickly.  Jack thought, given how stiff he’d been that morning, that the archeologist was undoubtedly going to pay for his urgency later.  Teal’c followed Daniel and Hammond ordered Williams to the infirmary as well.  This left the Hammond and Jack alone in the gate room, and the general turned to him.  “Well, colonel, what do you think?  Can he handle it?”

Jack gazed at the doorway Daniel had left by, giving the matter serious thought.  “Daniel excels at rising to crisis, sir.  This has hit him really hard, but I think he’d actually be better off on another world.”

“I have a couple of concerns, here,” Hammond said.  “One, that Dr. Jackson isn’t ready for this level of stress.  I think you may be right about that, he may be happier working and thinking about something else --”

“And absolutely guaranteed not to meet anyone who has seen that video,” Jack added.  “I think that’s going to haunt him in the long run more than anything else.”

Hammond let out a huff of breath.  “Right,” he said.  “My second concern is that the Siktari may view this an opportunity to get ahold of our best translator, and this is not a time when we can reasonably risk Dr. Jackson.  There’s no telling how he’d react to being captured just now.”

Jack grimaced.  “Ya think?”  He shook his head.  “Well, obviously, Carter and Teal’c and I would go with him.”

“Which would provide a layer of defense,” Hammond said slowly.  “But I think we might want to play up the status of our ‘senior translator,’ and incidentally beef up Dr. Jackson’s protections.  He strode swiftly out of the gate room and up the stairs to the control room.  Picking up a phone, he said, “Major Feretti?  Get your team kitted out to be diplomatic back up.  Dr. Jackson is going to P9X-Y32, and I want him looked after . . . Yes, SG-1 will be going as well.”  He hung up, then dialed another number.  Jack knit his brows and listened as he informed Major Warren of SG-3 that his team would be going as well.  Then he turned to Jack.  “Get your team kitted out as well, you’ll be leaving within the hour.”


	68. Chapter 68

Jack nodded and hurried off to Carter’s lab, where he found her working determinedly, eyes red-rimmed.  She looked up when he came in and said, “I’m sorry, sir, I --”  She broke off and straightened.  “Is something wrong, sir?”

“SG-9 have gotten themselves into a jam that requires Daniel to get them out of it.”

“Then they need to handle it themselves,” Carter said sharply, and Jack raised his eyebrows.  “I mean . . . everyone asks so much of Daniel,” she added in a less harsh tone.

“Well, it so happens that Daniel wants to help out on this one, and the general has authorized it, so we need to get ready.  Hammond’s sending SG-2 and SG-1 to help back us up and make Daniel look more important -- less touchable, if you know what I mean.”

She nodded slowly.  “Of course, sir.  I’ll . . . when are we leaving?”

“Within the hour.  Meet me in the gate room ASAP.”

“Yes sir,” she snapped, then started rapidly cleaning up what she’d been working on.  Jack went to the infirmary where he found Fraiser giving Daniel and Teal’c a stern lecture about Daniel’s medications.  She looked over at Jack irritably and wrapped it up, handing off Daniel’s medicine not to Daniel, but to Teal’c.  Since Daniel just seemed to be amused by his Jaffa babysitter, Jack remained an observer.

When they were done, he said, “We’ll be leaving within the next forty-five minutes.  Daniel, gather up any books you think you’ll need, Teal’c, get suited up for a mission.”

“Yes, O’Neill,” Teal’c said, and Jack heard an undercurrent of disapproval in his voice.  Daniel just nodded and hurried out.

Jack turned to Fraiser who was glaring at him, back to being nine feet tall.  “What do you think you’re doing, encouraging this?” she demanded.

He pursed his lips and crossed his arms.  “And tell me, doc, how will Daniel react if he doesn’t go and something terrible happens to any of those men?”  Her expression grew mutinous and he shook his head.  “Seriously, Fraiser, if he doesn’t go, he’ll stress harder than you can imagine.  You know him, you know that.”

She let out an exasperated sigh.  “I know that, colonel, it doesn’t make me any happier that he’s going offworld so soon after an experience like yesterday’s.”

“I’m not thrilled with it myself,” Jack said.  “But the fact is that Daniel also needs to be reminded that he’s needed and useful.  He’s bound to get depressed.  He needs to be doing something to help him get past that.”

She nodded.  “Well, if you bring him back in worse shape than he left in, colonel, you’d better be in damned bad shape yourself.”

“Yes, ma’am, Major Fraiser,” he said.  “Look, the general’s sending two extra teams as back up, to make sure that doesn’t happen.  Believe it or not, we’re not just throwing him to the wolves.”

“See that you don’t,” she replied and then, nodding, walked away.  Jack went to find Daniel and met him on his way back from his office with a large satchel.  They headed out to the locker room silently, Daniel practically seething with tension.

“Hey, Daniel, relax,” Jack said, catching up to him.  “Don’t get worked up.  We have a couple of minutes.”

“Kovacek is in prison, Jack.”

Jack decided not to point out how effective the diplomat’s efforts had been at getting them out of the prison Hadante.  “We’ll get there.  It can’t have been too long, Daniel.  He’ll be fine.”

“Remember what happened to you in prison,” Daniel said, then put on a burst of speed, turning into the locker room.

Jack blinked then followed him.  “Daniel, I doubt it’s the same kind of prison,” he said.  “Not if these folks want to have future relations with us.”

Daniel nodded.  “You’re probably right,” he said, his voice very controlled.  “But I’m not feeling very comfortable about it.”

Jack walked over and squeezed Daniel’s shoulder from behind.  “I get that.  Let’s get ourselves together then.”

They were silent as they got their gear on and Jack contemplated the mental state this had put Daniel into.  He hadn’t counted on this reaction when he’d told Hammond that Daniel would be fine on this mission.  He wasn’t actually sure that it made a difference, but there was a niggling uncertainty that made him uneasy.

They headed down to the gate room at a jog, and Jack thanked his lucky stars that everyone else was ready to go when they got there.  He pulled Teal’c aside and put a word in his ear about keeping an eye on Daniel at all times, then the gate came up and it was time to go.

The world on the other side was a lush green place . . . the gate was clearly in the middle of a rain forest.  Jack didn’t much like rain forests.  Too much rain and way too many trees for enemies to hide behind.  It also seemed to be getting towards sunset, which didn’t make him happy either.

Williams was talking earnestly to Daniel about the people they were meeting with as they paused to regroup on the other side of the gate.  Jack gestured for Teal’c and Carter to go ahead and ordered Lou Feretti to watch their six.

Feretti nodded and took rearguard and, without even seeming to notice the arrangements going on around him, Daniel started moving forward when they were ready to move out.  Jack shook his head and stayed close to the archeologist.  How the man could keep so many things juggled in his head at once was beyond Jack.  His feeble brain couldn’t keep up.

The apparent denseness of the forest surrounding the stargate was deceptive.  They broke into the open relatively quickly.  Jack looked back over his shoulder.  They were at the edge of a vast expanse of jungle that would make Tarzan drool.  Ahead, they were facing a high wall of dark gray stone.

“This is the central city in Sikta, Yovash,” Williams said.  “The gate guards will be expecting us.”

That sounded both promising and ominous at once to Jack, who pursed his lips and kept the party moving.  He did exchange a concerned glance with Feretti, but said nothing.  They approached the city gates and the guards atop the walls called out a greeting.  Of course, Jack didn’t understand it, but Williams looked at Daniel who nodded and called something back.  Something that included his name, but that was all Jack could make out.

The guards looked startled, then conferred with each other.  Jack edged toward Daniel.  “What was that?”

“They greeted Williams and asked who he brought with him.  I told them who I am and that you are my escort.”

Jack nodded thoughtfully, then looked up as one of the guards spoke again.  This was a little longer, and Daniel listened attentively.  When the guard was done, Daniel said something short that sounded vaguely affirmative in tone and the guard disappeared from the wall, leaving his fellow alone.

Daniel turned back to Jack.  “They were evidently not expecting us so soon.  He has to send to the elders for guidance.  He asked us to wait here.”

Jack grimaced sourly and took a look around them.  There were no people to be seen except the guard on the wall, but that didn’t mean that the countryside was safe.  There was a flat area to the left of the gate that had some natural boulders and wheel tracks that suggested that people with wheeled vehicles might use it as a turning space or perhaps they simply pulled off the road to be inspected there.  Regardless, off the road was Jack’s preference, and it was within easy view of the city gate.

“Feretti, scout the territory a little, but stay close.  Warren, set up a perimeter guard.”  He turned to Daniel and took his arm.  The archeologist was beginning to look a little tired, and since they were counting on him to get them through this mission, Jack planned to take extra care to make sure Daniel got enough rest.  He led the archeologist, who was still talking to Williams, to one of the boulders.  “Settle down here, Daniel.”  He looked up at Williams.  “Keep him safe, okay, captain?”

“Yes sir!” Williams said fervently, and Jack remembered abruptly that he had no idea what had just happened.  He’d have to give him the basics at some point, but it was clear that he was giving Daniel much needed information.  Teal’c stayed at Daniel’s left shoulder, arms crossed, looking immovable and stern.  Jack took a deep breath and walked back over to Carter.

“How are you holding up, major?” he asked.

“I’m fine, sir,” she said.  Her eyes looked better now, and he wondered what she’d done to get rid of the swelling and the redness he’d seen earlier.  Shaking his head slightly, he dismissed the irrelevancy from his mind.

“I know I don’t need to tell you this, but I want you to keep a close eye on Daniel’s emotional state.  If I don’t notice and you think he’s flagging, you need to tell me so I can call a recess or whatever so he can have a break.”

She nodded wordlessly, gazing up at the city.  Jack looked over himself.  In one direction the wall skirted the edge of the rain forest, in the other, it stretched out a great distance before turning.  The air was hazy with smoke, from wood fires by the smell, and Jack couldn’t help wondering what these people had to offer.  The guards’ weapons appeared to be pre-gunpowder, but for all Jack knew these were largely ceremonial guards who weren’t expecting to need their weapons.

A cough behind him made him turn around.  Daniel was evidently having some trouble with the smoke, which Jack didn’t find surprising, since it was catching his chest as well.  With Daniel’s allergies, some reaction was to be expected.  Another cough shook the archeologist, and it clearly sent pain through his abused body.

Without speaking, Teal’c dug into one of the pockets of his vest and pulled out a small container of lozenges that he opened and held out to Daniel.  Glancing up gratefully, Daniel took one and put it in his mouth.  Williams was watching worriedly.  Jack beckoned him over as Teal’c put the lozenges away and handed Daniel his canteen.

Daniel looked mildly amused by this mother-henning, but Williams was starting to looking vastly alarmed.  He came up to Jack and said, “Colonel O’Neill, is something wrong with Dr. Jackson?”

Jack drew him to the side and spoke quietly.  “Yesterday morning, Dr. Jackson was kidnapped.”  Williams’ eyes widened and he turned to look at Daniel who was teasing Teal’c.  “Obviously he’s been rescued since, but he hasn’t even really had time for the events to sink in.”

“Was he hurt?”

Jack grimaced.  “Nothing life threatening, but he was tortured.”

“Is that why General Hammond sent so many soldiers with us?”

“In part,” Jack said.  “Just . . . be aware.”

Williams nodded and walked back over to Daniel.  Jack watched him go then turned back to the city.  Patience was not one of his stronger points and he wanted to get this mission over and done with and Daniel back home where he was . . . damn it, he _was_ safe at home.  Grady was an aberration.  It would not happen again.


	69. Chapter 69

They waited for nearly three quarters of an hour.  A greenish twilight began to fall, casting sickly light over the faces of the gathered men and women.  Daniel was getting antsy, and Jack was ready to shoot someone for making them wait so long when his friend was on such a narrow edge of control.  He reminded himself that they didn’t know that, but it didn’t help his temper much.

Finally, the guard came back with another man, and Williams whispered that it was the lowest member of the elders council.  Daniel stood and walked forward, Williams at his right and Teal’c just behind and to his left.  Jack took up a position mirroring Teal’c’s on the other side, and Carter brought up the rear between them.  As if they’d rehearsed the move, Feretti’s and Warren’s squads moved up on each side to flank them.  It was a nice piece of theater and it was obvious from the man’s expression that the elder had observed it.  The question remained, how had he interpreted it?

The elder spoke and Daniel nodded to Captain Williams, who dropped back behind Jack.  Carter shifted left to mirror him, maintaining the symmetry.  Daniel replied in the native language, and Jack found himself, as usual, in a position he absolutely hated.  Out of the loop.

After a brief interchange, Daniel turned to Jack.  “He invites us to enter the city and partake of their hospitality.  They had not expected so large a party, so he apologized in advance if any of the accommodations are less than perfect, and assured me that every effort will be made to remedy any problems we should find.”

“And you said?”

“That we appreciated the effort, but that our first concern was our imprisoned colleagues.”  Daniel’s eyes glinted slightly in the gathering twilight.  “He assured me that they are not really imprisoned, merely detained, and we fenced briefly on that, but the upshot of it is that I will be permitted to see all of them this evening.”

“Not alone, Daniel.  You’re not going anywhere alone on this trip.”

“I said that I would have to take the core of my escort.  He agreed.”

“Good.”  The gates began to swing open and Jack turned to face forward.  “Looks like we’re on.”

“Yup,” Daniel said as he started walking towards the open portal.  Jack didn’t like this.  Big high walls could do very well for keeping people in as well as for keeping them out, and even twelve guys with automatic weapons could be overpowered by sufficient numbers.

Paranoia was a powerful force, and Jack felt it flowing through him as they went through the gateway.  The walls were of stone, but the gates themselves were wood sheathed in some kind of bronzy metal.  They passed through the wall, which was at least ten feet thick, and emerged on the other side in a wide courtyard lit by flickering torches.  It was teeming with people, who were held back at a safe distance by rows of guards.

The elder approached Daniel and there was some kind of greeting ritual that Jack assumed was somewhat analogous to a shaking of hands.  They bowed at each other and exchanged names.  Jack couldn’t quite catch the name of the elder because he couldn’t distinguish the name from what were merely surrounding words.

Once they were simpatico, Daniel turned to him and nodded, then walked alongside the elder down one of the streets that led out of this courtyard.  Jack, Teal’c, Carter and Williams kept up their positions, with Jack walking directly behind the elder in a perfect position to deal with the man if trouble began.

Diplomatic Daniel would probably disapprove of Jack’s thinking on this, but since Jack had no plans to share his thoughts, it wouldn’t be an issue.

The guards continued to keep the crowds back.  This seemed like a very large city, and it was clear that they were something of a curiosity.  Jack wondered that there hadn’t been more heads sticking over the city walls, but perhaps the walks along the walls were forbidden to anyone not meant to be there.

Dismissing that thought for the time being, he focused on threat assessment.  There were huge numbers of people here, and Jack glanced around to make sure that his forces were being suitably vigilant.  Both Feretti and Warren had spread their men out a bit for better coverage, and everyone was looking alert and aware, hands not on their weapons, but close by.

Jack thought about moving his hand off the grip of his gun, but decided not to.  He was playing high level bodyguard, after all.  It was his job to look menacing.  Teal’c was sure looking forbidding, and Carter looked frighteningly competent.  Daniel looked cool and collected as he spoke quietly with the elder who was guiding them.

It was a good twenty-minute walk to where they were headed.  The crowds thinned a bit as they went through the city, and Jack wondered about them.  They weren’t cheering, but they weren’t muttering.  A lot of them, in that dark-haired throng, seemed very interested in the light-haired members of the three SG teams, particularly the redheaded Lt. Travers on SG-2.

This made Jack uneasy with their putative ‘leader’ being blond, even if his hair was darker now that it was short.

They wended their way through industrial, commercial and residential districts till they got to a very highbrow portion of the city, where the houses were larger and grander.  Finally, they stopped before a building that appeared to be a walled mansion.  There were guards at the gate  The elder spoke to them and they stepped aside.  Daniel turned to Jack.  “This appears to be where we’re to stay.  Any objections?  Would you rather we pitched camp outside the city?”

Jack blinked and looked thoughtfully up at the house.  “Two questions, do you think we’re safe here?”

Daniel made a very slight shrug.  “I think so,” he said.

“And how do you think they’d react if we decided to camp outside?”

“Negatively,” Daniel said without hesitation.  “I think they’d take it as an insult to their hospitality.  Maybe not if we’d done it in the first place, but coming and looking at the house and then . . .”

“I get you,” Jack said.  “Well, then, tell him to lead on, but do let him know that we’ll place our own guards at the gates.  Like at an embassy.”

Daniel nodded and turned to the elder who was waiting.  The man smiled at first, then his expression grew wary.  There was a brief interchange, but Daniel pointed to Jack and spoke firmly and the man seemed to give way, albeit reluctantly.  They walked forward and entered the house and Daniel dropped back slightly to speak to Jack.  “I think you’d better get your guard organized quickly, Jack.  I’m going to insist on seeing Kovacek and the others before we get the tour of our dwelling.”

Jack nodded and called Feretti and Warren over.  Feretti was the senior officer, so he put him in charge and set him the task of checking the perimeter, the house’s interior, and organizing a watch over the compound.

Meanwhile, Daniel was having a tense conversation with their host.  His brows were drawn down slightly and his lips were tight.  The elder’s face was very closed.  Finally, Daniel said something that seemed to clinch things and the man nodded unhappily.  He spoke again, and Daniel replied, then walked over to Jack and the two majors.

“Jack, he’d like to make sure that whoever’s left in charge has met the housekeeper so that there is no confusion.  I gather that this house has a staff of seven, and we don’t want to terrify the poor people.”

“Nor do we want to assume that they’re all what they seem, Daniel,” Jack said.

Daniel nodded.  “So, I’ll wait here while you and Feretti go down to the kitchen where the staff is waiting.”

“Why are you waiting here?” Jack asked.

“Part of my firm stance against settling in before I see our ‘detained’ men.”

“Ah.”  Jack glanced over at a corner of the room.  “I don’t think I like that plan.  If we go down there, we won’t know what he’s saying to the servants about us.”

Daniel nodded, then walked back to the elder.  He spoke, the elder looked perplexed but agreed and stepped out of the room.  “I asked him to bring the servants here.”

“Good.  So, what’s your feeling about the situation at this point?”

Daniel took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “That’s hard to say.  This guy is pretty junior, right, Williams?”

“Yes, Dr. Jackson.”

“I don’t know how to read what signals he’s giving me then.  I don’t know if he’s reflecting the views of the whole council, or if his manner only reflects his own opinion.”

“What does his manner suggest to you, though?” Jack asked.

Crossing his arms and knitting his brows, Daniel paused thoughtfully.  “That he thinks we should consider our failed diplomats as lost and start with the negotiations as if nothing untoward had happened.”

“Oh really?”  Jack glowered at the door the man had left by.  “That’s not how we operate.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow.  “No, Jack, it’s not,” he said mildly, and Jack blinked, realizing that his stance had gotten a little aggressive.  He consciously calmed himself down and Daniel smiled.  “I think my insistence is driving that home to him.”

“Right.”

The man came upstairs followed by a group of people in simple garments.  There were four women and three men of varying ages, ranging from a man who looked sixty-odd to a girl who looked to be no more than fourteen.  Daniel asked for their names, or at least that’s what Jack assumed he asked.  The elder introduced the old man and a middle-aged woman.

Daniel nodded to both of them and spoke briefly.  Then he turned to Jack.  “Who’s going to be in charge while we’re gone?”

“Feretti.”

Daniel nodded.  Then he spoke to the man and woman.  Jack heard the words ‘Major Feretti’ in his foreign babble.  Turning back to Feretti, he said, “This are Sinkap and Jasmit.”  Gesturing to the man, he said, “Sinkap is essentially the butler, but with less of the protocol function of an English butler.  Jasmit is in charge of the household as a whole.”  Knitting his brows, he turned back to the elder and asked a quick question.  The man nodded, and Daniel tightened his lips.  “Okay, Jack, I don’t know how you want to handle this, but Jasmit would not normally have anything to do with guards or male household members except peripherally.  She would expect to be dealing with the female head of household.  Now, if we were all men, that wouldn’t be an issue, but we have three women in this party, so she would expect to deal with the senior of those women, which would be Sam.”

Jack glanced over at Carter who looked a little startled.  “She’ll be coming with us, as part of the ‘core of your escort,’” he said.  “Can she delegate for now?”

“I would think so,” Daniel said.  He turned to the servants and said something that included ‘Major Carter.’  The woman Jasmit looked at Carter with a faintly scandalized expression, but nodded.  “Who would she delegate to?”

Jack glanced over at Lt. Adler and Lt. Stone.  Stone was senior, but she wasn’t as good in terms of communication as Adler was.  “Lt. Adler.”  He thought he saw a brief look of relief cross Stone’s face, and a slight nod from Daniel.

The archeologist beckoned Adler forward and said something to Jasmit in her language.  Then he turned to Adler.  “I think you’ll have to communicate in sign language for the most part till I get back, but you may be able to pick up a few words if you’re observant.”

“Yes, sir, Dr. Jackson,” Adler said, not quite saluting.  In contrast to Stone, she seemed almost eager for the opportunity.

“Very good,” he said.  “Feretti, the same goes for you.”  The major nodded, not looking entirely thrilled by the prospect.  “Jack, is that everything?”

Jack nodded after a moment’s thought and Daniel turned back to the elder.  He said something completely incomprehensible, the man nodded, and they were underway.  Jack, Teal’c, Carter and Williams followed them, leaving the bulk of the escort behind, which made Jack feel a little jumpy, but choices seemed a bit limited.


	70. Chapter 70

They followed the man out of the house, outside the walls of the mansion and further into the city.  It wasn’t more than a few minutes before they reached another wall, not quite as high as the city wall, but high enough.  It, too, was patrolled, but these were clearly ceremonial guards with their shiny breastplates and jeweled weapons.

Daniel leaned back and spoke in an undertone.  “He’s taking us to the palace.”

Jack bit back on a sarcastic reply as being inappropriate to the circumstances.  They entered through the gates and headed up an avenue that was lined with gardens on either side.  Jack imagined they were very pretty but his focus was rather sharply on their mission.  Sightseeing would have to wait.  He checked the sightlines automatically, looking for locations where ambush could lay in wait, but most of the larger structures were well away from the path.

They turned left about forty yards in front of a grandiose building and walked along a path that was parallel to it, then entered by a small door that was nearly hidden behind some kind of purple flowering bush.  Within, there was a guard post manned by three men and a set of stairs that went upwards.  The steps had two switchbacks, and Jack guessed that they were at least two, two and a half stories up when they came into a dimly lit corridor.  Their guide led them past several locked doors to one on the right which he stopped beside.

He spoke to Daniel, and Daniel nodded.  “This is where Kovacek is,” he said to Jack.  Their guide unlocked and opened the door, stepped back and gestured Daniel in.

Jack put a hand on Daniel’s shoulder and held him back as he started forward.  “I’ll go first,” he said firmly.  Daniel pursed his lips and nodded, looking mildly annoyed.  Jack had his hand on his weapon as he stepped through the doorway.  Beyond, there was essentially an iron cage that was about five foot deep and ten feet wide.  Beyond that, there was a room with comfortable appointments, a bed, a table, chairs, a couple of lamps, a small sofa, a screened off area that Jack assumed contained certain more private amenities.  There were also wide, barred windows that were fitted with slatted screens of wood that allowed air in, but prevented the prisoner from viewing the world outside, or being viewed in return.

“Colonel O’Neill!” Kovacek said.  “I’m glad to see you.”

“Is it okay, Jack?” Daniel asked before Jack could respond to Kovacek’s words.

“Come on in, Daniel, but there’s not much space.”

Daniel entered the cage and looked at Kovacek’s situation.

“Dr. Jackson?” Kovacek said in surprise.  “I thought you were on stand down.”

“I am,” Daniel said.  “But the circumstances and the Siktari demands changed things a little.  How are you being treated?”

“Like a pariah,” Kovacek said frankly.  “They bring me food, but they don’t look at me or speak to me.  Bathwater is let in from a tank above and . . . other things are let down into a tank below.”  He looked frustrated.  “I still don’t understand what went wrong, and I don’t know what happened to my men.  No one will answer my questions.  They just act as if they can’t hear me.”

“We haven’t seen your men yet,” Daniel said.  “And what happened is a misinterpretation of Sindar’s translation,” Daniel said.  “They think you insulted their prince by saying that you wouldn’t bring your sister here if you had a choice.”

Kovacek blinked.  “Did Sindar mistranslate?” he asked.

“Not exactly . . . it’s complicated.”  Daniel gave him a tight smile.  “We’ll get things straightened out.  But they sent Williams back with a demand for a better interpreter, so here I am.”

“Damn, I’m sorry, Dr. Jackson.  I didn’t mean to --”

Jack shook his head.  “Now is not the time, Kovacek.  You’re in good health and they’re not hurting you in any way?”

The major came to attention.  “Yes sir, I’m fine, and no, they’re not hurting me.”

“Good,” Jack said.  “Now we need to go check on your men.”

“Yes sir, thank you.”

“I can’t promise when we’ll be able to get back in to see you, major,” Daniel said, stepping closer to the bars.  “But rest assured, we’re all working to get you back home.  Is there anything you need?”  Kovacek looked around the room and shook his head.  “Any messages you want us to relay?”

“No thank you, Dr. Jackson,” Kovacek said.  “I choose to believe you’ll get this done quickly enough that it won’t be necessary.”

Daniel gulped, and said, “I appreciate the confidence.  I’ll try to make sure it’s not misplaced.”  Nodding, he went out.

As Jack started to follow him, Kovacek called him back.  “First, make sure my men get out, that’s more important.”  Jack nodded.  “And . . . should he really be here?”

Jack shrugged.  “Hammond, Fraiser and I judged him fit to handle an emergency.  He won’t be here in the long term.”

Kovacek nodded and Jack reached through the bars to give his shoulder a squeeze and stepped out.  Averting his eyes, the elder shut and locked the door and took them back out into the garden where complete darkness had fallen at last.

“Where to now, Daniel?” Jack asked.  The elder had turned right and was heading towards the end of the building.

“Let me ask.”  He turned to the elder and they spoke for several moments, then turned back.  “We’re going into the foreigners’ wing of the palace.”

“How far is that?” Jack asked as they took a turn around the end of the building.

“I gather it’s just around the corner,” Daniel said.  “They’ve given us a house in the city to make us feel safer, I think, and more in control of our living space.”

“Good idea on their part,” Jack said.

Daniel moved back forward to walk next to the elder again.  Jack really hated this kind of mission.  It was so much easier when the languages were more compatible.

There was a wing jutting out behind the building on the far end, and the elder led them up some steps inside.  It was obvious where Morgan and Prakash were being kept.  There were a pair of guards outside one door.  They stepped back as the elder approached.  This time the elder entered the room with them.  Jack nodded for Carter, Teal’c and Williams to stay outside.

Lt. Prakash jumped up from where he’d been sitting.  “Dr. Jackson, are you all right?  What are you doing here?  Have you seen Major Kovacek?”  Sgt. Morgan emerged hurriedly from what looked to be the privy .

“We have,” Daniel said.  “He’s fine.”

“I’m sorry my blunder brought you out here, sir,” Prakash said to Daniel.  “I really am.”

“Don’t worry about it, Sindar,” Daniel said.  “How are they treating the two of you?”

“Like guests who aren’t allowed to leave their rooms,” Sgt. Morgan said dryly.  “They’ve brought us games, books that Prakash can read, food, you name it, but we don’t get to leave.  And they act like the major doesn’t exist when we ask about him.”

“Shunning,” Daniel said.  “It can be an extremely effective punishment, but don’t worry, we’re going to deal with the situation.”

“I don’t understand what happened,” Prakash said.

Jack watched Daniel sigh.  “I don’t know if you missed a shift into the formal mode or if they simply took an opportunity to put you wrong footed by interpreting what you said in the formal mode, but they’re treating it as if Major Kovacek said that he wouldn’t bring his sister or daughter here if he had any say about it.  You know enough of their culture to --”

“No wonder they were so offended,” Sgt. Morgan said.  “They’ve been practically shoving their girls at us.  I had to have Prakash explain about my wife and three kids before they’d stop.”

“Has anyone taken advantage of the situation?” Jack asked diffidently.  They were playing this as if Daniel was in charge, so he needed to keep his own questions low key when there were others about.

“No, sir,” Lt. Prakash said.  “It’s actually been making things a little tense.  They seem to think that marriage is a necessary part of any treaty negotiations.”

Jack had a sudden image of Carter’s reaction to something like that.  It was neither pretty nor genteel.  “I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he said.

“Major Kovacek has had a little difficulty explaining that to them, and I’ve been less help than you would have been, sir.”

“I’m sure you did very well, Sindar,” Daniel said.  “And we’ll find some way to make it clear that we don’t operate that way.  Though Sam’s . . . um . . . appearance could complicate matters some.”

“Major Carter is here?” Prakash exclaimed.  “But she’s -- she --”  His worried expression smoothed out.  “She can handle herself,” he said.  “But she should be warned that men here seem to think that women should be seduced.  At her age, though, they might assume she’s already married, probably to one of you two.”

“I don’t think we’d better encourage that assumption,” Daniel said.  “No, I really think we need to make our culture clear and ask that they respect it.”  He nodded.  “Is there anything else I should know going into these negotiations?”

“They’re very status conscious.  I assumed that I had mistranslated something, so I apologized, and told them that I was a junior translator.  That was when they put us in here and sent Williams back.  I’m sorry, sir, I don’t . . . I shouldn’t have said that.”

Daniel shook his head.  “It’s fine, Sindar.  I’m fine.  Morgan, do you have an observations you’d like to share?”

Morgan pursed his lips.  “How many guys you got with you?” he asked.

“We brought SG-2 and -3,” Daniel said.  “So, with Williams, that’s a total of ten men and three women.”  He glanced over at Jack as if to verify, and Jack nodded.

“Okay, you’d better warn all those young single guys that women may swarm over them when the negotiations begin.  They just need to be prepared.  It’s kind of overwhelming, and they don’t let too many people in for the negotiating, so some of them at least will be left outside.  And I don’t know what to expect from the men towards Adler and Stone.”

“Good to know.”  Daniel turned to Jack.  “Do you have any other questions?”

“I’m good for now,” Jack said.  He’d noticed that Daniel seemed to be flagging a bit.  “Talk to your friend and see if we can get these guys sprung right now, since they seem to be angrier at Kovacek.”

Daniel nodded and turned to the elder.  The man listened, then spoke and there was a brief interchange that Prakash followed with hope, then disappointment.  Finally, Daniel turned and said, “Not tonight.  I’m to meet with the full council tomorrow three hours past dawn.  Then we may be able to negotiate their release.”

“Okay, then, let’s get back to that house and get some rest.”

Daniel nodded again.  “We’ll be back,” he said to Prakash and Morgan, who nodded.  Then he spoke to the elder and they headed back outside, back to the house.  Daniel kept up a good face, but he was clearly starting to wear out.  Jack wondered if he was going to have to sit on him to get him to take proper rest tonight.

He exchanged worried looks with Carter and Teal’c, but didn’t say anything.  Daniel would push himself, and Jack wasn’t always sure how to stop him.  At least now they knew that nothing untoward was happening to Kovacek, Morgan or Prakash.  When they reached the gateway, they found the Siktari guard standing uneasy watch with Lt. Jorgens and Capt. Clemmons.

Jack nodded to the two soldiers, but then Daniel came to a stop outside the gates.  He spoke to the elder who looked startled, but seemed to agree.  They did some kind of farewell ritual and the man left.  Daniel looked at Jack who gestured Williams forward to open the gates.  Once they were inside the house, Daniel started to sag in earnest.

Carter rushed forward.  “Daniel, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said.  “I’m just tired.  And I could eat.  Let’s go find out if Adler and Jasmit are communicating okay.”

At that moment, Adler emerged.  “I’ve had Jasmit hold dinner for y’all,” she said.  “This way.”  They followed her to a table spread with the most incredibly spicy food Jack had had in a while.  Daniel sat down and dug in with every evidence of relish so Jack sat down next to him, not altogether sure how his gut would take to the spice.  Teal’c sat down at the head of the table while Carter sat across from Daniel.  Williams sat uneasily across from Jack, who got the impression that the man was uncomfortable with a team other than his own.

“Okay,” Daniel said after he’d eaten a bit.  “Tomorrow.”  Jack nodded, his mouth full.  “I told Prabjot that my core escort, excluding Steve, would be required to accompany me to the negotiations.  He wasn’t happy, wanted to limit me to one of you, but I said there wasn’t an option.”  Daniel gave him an apologetic smile.  “I’m sorry, Jack, Sam, Teal’c, I know how boring this kind of thing is, but . . .”

“No, Daniel, that’s what I wanted to hear,” Jack said.  “The sooner they get used to the idea that there will be at least three people around you at all times, the happier I’ll be.”

Daniel smiled slightly and looked down at his food.  From this, Jack gathered that he wasn’t quite ready to be alone himself, yet.  He kept his sigh internal.  Daniel would undoubtedly misinterpret it.  Damn those bastards, anyway.  Didn’t Daniel have enough hell in his life?

“So, what all did this Prabjot guy say?” Carter asked.

“Most of it was welcoming piffle,” Daniel said.  “He seemed to want to regard us as an entirely separate envoy from Kovacek, not as an adjunct.  We’ll see if that’s how the council treats it tomorrow.  I’m going to have to make it clear to them that I’m not replacing Kovacek.”

“No, we’re here to pull Kovacek’s fat out of the fire and go home, ideally,” Jack said.

Daniel nodded, then sighed.  “And, put frankly, I’m not up to long term negotiation right now.  I hate to admit it, but I’m really not.”

Jack put out a hand and rested it on Daniel’s back.  “It’s okay, Daniel.  No one expects you to be.”

Daniel shrugged.  “I do.”

“You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, Daniel,” Carter said, reaching out and taking his hand.  Daniel smiled at her but shrugged again.  He squeezed her hand then dropped his own into his lap, continuing to eat.

Carter gave Jack a worried look, but he didn’t know what to say.  Instead, he turned to Adler, who looked almost as worried as Carter, and said, “So, are the sleeping arrangements . . . um . . . arranged?”

She nodded.  “Given the circumstances, we’ve allotted the largest bedroom to Dr. Jackson, since he’s the senior envoy.  The rest of the rooms have been parceled out according to rank.  The reports we’ve received suggested this would be standard practice here, so that’s what I’ve done.  Oh, and I put all three of the female officers in the same room, if that meets your approval, sir and ma’am.”

“Sounds good,” Jack said, and Carter nodded, looking mildly perplexed.  She hadn’t yet been filled in on the details of Morgan’s report.

“Jasmit suggested it, and I figured that she would know what was appropriate.”

 “Good job, lieutenant,” Jack said, and she nodded, looking pleased.  He wondered where she’d put him, and resolved that some arrangement would have to be made to avoid leaving Daniel alone wherever he’d been put.  Teal’c could kelnoreem on the floor in his room, perhaps.

After a few moments, she walked around the table and spoke in his ear in a low voice.  “On Major Feretti’s orders, I had a second bed brought into the largest bedroom, so that Dr. Jackson wouldn’t be alone.”

He nodded.  “Very good,” he said quietly.  “Is there anything else we need to know before morning?”

“I think Major Feretti wants to speak with you, but beyond that, I don’t believe so, sir.”

“Thank you, lieutenant.”

She nodded, saluted, and left.  Daniel looked over and said, “What was that?”

“I’ll be rooming with you,” he replied nonchalantly.

Daniel raised his eyebrows.  “Really?  Not enough rooms for us to have our own?” he asked lightly.

“Guess not,” Jack said in the same tone.

“Ah well, I’m sure you’ll manage to sleep through my snoring.”

Teal’c looked at them in puzzlement.  “I do not believe I have ever heard you snore, DanielJackson, and we have shared a tent on many an occasion.”

Daniel gave the Jaffa a bland look.  “You must be a sound sleeper,” he said.  Williams was hiding a grin.

Teal’c raised a single eyebrow.  “I do not sleep.”

Jack rolled his eyes and kicked Teal’c under the table.  The Jaffa turned an astonished and outraged glare on him, and Daniel, apparently guessing what had happened, started laughing.  At the sound, Teal’c’s eyes widened and he gave Daniel a startled and slightly hurt look.

Daniel’s laughter redoubled, but now he was trying to speak amidst it.  “I’m sorry,” he got out.  “I’m -- your face is just -- I’m sorry --”

“I can’t see why,” Jack said.  “What have you got to be sorry for?”

Gasping, the archeologist said, “I’m sorry you’re such a putz!”

Carter, who had been controlling what looked suspiciously like a fit of the giggles, let out a high-pitched noise and excused herself shrilly.

Jack looked after her and said, “She squeaked.  I’d swear she squeaked!  Why’d she squeak?”

“Perhaps because she, too, thinks that you are a putz.”  As always, Teal’c’s voice was measured and calm, but Jack sensed an undercurrent of mischief in his tone.

Daniel threw back his head and laughed loudly, with no edge of hysteria, Jack was glad to observe.  Eventually, his laughter wound down and he said, “Your faces . . . too funny.”

Jack reached out and ruffled Daniel’s hair.  “I’m glad we’re so amusing,” he said dryly.  Daniel shot him and Teal’c a glance, as if checking to make sure they weren’t really upset, then grinned.

“Indeed,” Teal’c said.  “DanielJackson, you look very weary.  Will you not retire?”

“I’m not even done eating,” he said.

“You are not eating,” Teal’c observed, and Jack looked down at Daniel’s plate.  He hadn’t eaten very much past his initial few bites.

“Eat, eat!” Jack said, doing his best impersonation of a Jewish grandmother.  “You’re too skinny.”  Daniel ate a few more bites then pushed his plate away.  Jack pulled it back.  “That’s not enough,” he said.

“I’m not hungry,” Daniel replied.  “I’ll eat a big breakfast.”  He stood up.

Conscious of Williams’ presence, Jack didn’t push any harder, though he really did think Daniel should eat more.  He’d eaten enough himself, and realized that Daniel must have been picking at his food for some time while he hadn’t been paying attention.  He got up and put his napkin down.  “I’ll hold you to that,” he said, and Daniel gave him an uneasy look.  “Now let’s go see what these bedrooms look like.”

“Yes indeed,” Teal’c said, rising as well.

Adler was waiting outside with Jasmit, who looked as if she thought the lieutenant was trying to supplant her in her duties.  She put her hands together in front of her face and bowed to Daniel.  When she stood again, she spouted something incomprehensible.  Daniel nodded and spoke back and the woman bowed again, then gestured them forward with Adler following behind, listening avidly to every word both Jasmit and Daniel said.

The Siktari woman led them to a bedroom decorated in vivid blue and silver.  It was plenty large enough for the two beds that were placed against opposite walls.  She spoke to Daniel again, and then withdrew, pulling Adler out with her.  They heard her make an agitated speech in the hall, and Adler said something in her southern drawl, and then footsteps suggested that she was moving away.

“She’ll have the men draw us a bath up here.  So, Jack, you want the water first, or shall I?”

“What did she say to Adler?” Jack asked.

“It was a lecture about not being alone with men in a bedroom,” Daniel said.  “The evils of the masculine gender, you know the sort of thing.”

“She is wise,” Teal’c said.

Jack gave him a dubious look.  “Teal’c, do you really think Adler’s in any danger with the three of us?”

“She cannot know that,” Teal’c said calmly.  “And there is something I have read in your works of jurisprudence.  It is well to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”

“He’s got you there, Jack,” Daniel said.

“I suppose you’re right, both of you.  After all, they say,” he paused and raised a finger, “‘It is not enough to be honest, one must also appear honest.’”

Daniel nodded.  “Of course there’s always . . .”  Before he could say what there always was, a truly huge yawn split his face.

“Bed time,” Jack said.  “You get the first bath.”

“I’m fine,” Daniel said through his post-yawn blinking.

“Yup, you’re fine,” Jack said, “and you’re clearly ready to fall asleep standing up.”

The door was still open and the younger two of the three men came in carrying a large tub.  They placed it on the floor and the older man walked in with a steaming bucket.  He dumped it in.  Then all three left and Jack looked at the bare quarter inch of water on the bottom of the tub.  A few moments later, all three returned with buckets.  Jack could see that this was going to take a while.

“Daniel?” Jack asked as he and Daniel sat down on the edge of one of the beds to wait for the bath to be filled.  Teal’c stood nearby, arms crossed, looking formidable.

“Yes, Jack?”

“Just what is it that these people have that we want?”

“Something they call pintha,” Daniel said.  “It’s a plant that has some properties that Janet was drooling over.  Apparently it has some chemical that may help regrow nerve sheaths, or something like that.  We’re trying to get a couple of years’ worth of seeds and seedlings to see if we can grow it and to test for quantity and quality of the chemical in various life stages of the plant.”

“I see,” Jack said.  “I hope we’re offering the secrets of indoor plumbing.”

“Don’t be such a snob, Jack,” Daniel said, glaring at him.

Jack shook his head.  “Plumbing is not a snobbish issue, Daniel,” he replied.  “Poor plumbing leads to things like typhus and dysentery, not to mention the deleterious effect it has on the environment.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow.  “You mean, because it smells?” he asked.

“Among other things,” Jack said.  “You may scoff, but it’s no laughing matter.”

“Of course not,” Daniel said, still looking like he thought Jack was being ridiculous.

They waited through several more trips of the buckets in silence, then Daniel slumped slightly and thumped against Jack’s side.  Then he made a startled, snuffling sound and sat up straight.  “Sorry!” he exclaimed.  “I . . . I guess I drifted off.”

“Maybe you should --”

Daniel popped up to his feet.  “I need a bath before I sleep,” he said, stifling a prodigious yawn.  “I can stay awake until there’s enough water for a bath.”  He looked down at his wrist for his watch and stared blankly at the bandage for a moment.  “We have the stuff to renew these, right?” he asked.

“Dr. Fraiser pressed a medical kit on me, DanielJackson,” Teal’c said gravely.

“Good,” Daniel said, pulling his watch out of one of the pockets of his vest.  “Gah, it’s only eight p.m.  I don’t believe this.”

And they’d all gotten up near noon, Jack reflected, but if Daniel wasn’t thinking about that, he wasn’t going to bring it up.  He really hoped the computer geniuses would have a solution worked out by the time they got home, because Daniel really needed not to think about all those copies of that damned recording.

Jack suppressed violent images of kicking Glen to death. How desperately he wanted to kill both those bastards was not what he needed to be thinking about now.  Daniel was standing a few feet away with his back to him, arms wrapped around his torso.  Teal’c was watching him, but he glanced at Jack with understanding, and Jack had a distinct sense that the Jaffa knew what was on his mind and was having similar desires.

The servants finished filling the tub and left the room after placing a pile of towels nearby.  Teal’c shut the door, and as soon as the latch clicked, Daniel was skinning out of his clothes and peeling off the bandages to climb in.

Jack started to turn away, but the sight of the bruises marking the pale skin of Daniel’s body made his blood boil, along with the angry red rings around his wrists.  There was still the faintest trace of a pink outline on his back where the biggest burn had been, too, and Jack wanted to find Rigar and kill him, too, despite the fact that he was already dead.

Daniel bathed quickly, then seemed to have trouble getting himself out of the tub.  Teal’c stepped forward instantly and helped him out, handing Daniel the local equivalent of a towel which was a huge piece of cloth that Daniel simply wrapped himself in.  He stumbled over to the other bed, pulled back the covers and got in.  Jack would swear he was asleep before he actually hit the mattress.

“It is your turn, O’Neill,” Teal’c said.  Jack nodded and got himself cleaned up quickly while Teal’c rebandaged Daniel’s arms without awakening him.  The water was already almost cold.  Teal’c cleaned himself up, and they let the servants take the water away.  Daniel didn’t even stir.

Jack sat on his bed, leaning against the headboard.  He wasn’t remotely close to tired, though he could force himself to sleep, and probably would soon since it was clearly late in the evening here.  He looked up at Teal’c.  “What’s your plan for the night, big guy?”

“I thought that I would stay in here and attempt kelnoreem.”

“Good idea,” Jack said.  “I need to go check on Feretti and Warren, make sure everything’s tip top and then I can go to sleep.  You mind staying with Daniel?”

Teal’c inclined his head gravely to indicate his acceptance of the task.  “I am concerned for DanielJackson.  I am not altogether certain that he should have come on this mission.”

Jack grimaced.  “I understand, and I share your concern, but being back home fretting himself into a froth over the thought that something dreadful might be happening to Kovacek and the others wouldn’t do him any good either.”  Teal’c pursed his lips and inclined his head again, a tacit acknowledgement of Jack’s point.  “So keep an eye on him and I’ll be back shortly.”

“I will keep both eyes on him,” Teal’c said with the barest hint of a grin, an expression that was almost like a guffaw of laughter for the Jaffa.

Jack grinned and nodded, then went out.


	71. Chapter 71

Daniel woke to the scent of warm humid air.  He sat up and looked around the room in the predawn dimness.  Jack was sleeping on the bed against the opposite wall and Teal’c sat cross legged by the door, clearly deep in kelnoreem.  Pushing the covers back, he turned to get up and realized abruptly that he was wrapped in a long strip of cloth and nothing else.  His wrists were bandaged, too, and he distinctly remembered peeling those off when he climbed into the water.  He must have been really out of it last night when he finished his bath.  His head was stuffed, and he felt sort of thick this morning.

He got up and pulled a fresh set of clothes on, but it didn’t take much movement to wake Jack up.  The older man sat up on his elbows and said, “Good morning.”

Daniel nodded and kept getting dressed.  He didn’t feel quite up to speech yet.  Digging in his pouches he found an antihistamine and hoped it would take effect quickly enough to recover him before it was time to begin negotiations.

Jack got out of bed and pulled on his pants.  Walking over he said, “How did you sleep, Daniel?”

Daniel shrugged.  “Okay, I guess.  Allergies are acting up.”

“Whoa, you do sound congested.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.  “Thanks.”

“Well, a good spicy breakfast should clear that right up,” Jack said with enthusiasm.

“I’m not hungry yet, Jack,” Daniel said.

“After what you ate yesterday, you damned well should be,” Jack said sounding a bit irritated.  “I think it might have been a total of ten bites of dinner last night and not much else.”  Daniel sighed.  The more Jack talked, the emptier his stomach seemed, but he still wasn’t hungry.  Not ready to face food yet.  “You promised you’d make up for not eating last night by eating this morning.”

“I said I would eat a big breakfast,” Daniel countered.  “I didn’t say how soon I’d eat after I got up.”

“Daniel!”  Jack’s voice had a warning note.  A quiet gurgle sounded in Daniel’s gut and he grimaced.  If only his body could agree with itself.

“Give me another twenty minutes, please?” Daniel said plaintively.  “I need a little time to wake up before I start shoving food into my body.”

“Fine,” Jack said.  “If you insist.  What’s the plan for today?”

Daniel wandered to a window and looked out at the sun that was just peeking over the horizon and glanced down at his watch.  Midnight, Earth time.  “We expect Prabjot back in about three hours, at which point real negotiations can begin.”

“Right.  We’d better settle in and talk about what we hope to accomplish.”

Daniel nodded.  “I need to negotiate on fast forward, I think.  I’m not going to last out the day, I don’t think.  I’ve only slept four hours, and I have no idea how long I’ll last.”  His lips twisted sourly.  “I hate not feeling up to things.”

“I know, Daniel, but there’s no shame in this.  You’re exhausted.  Anyone would be.”

Daniel shrugged.  “I’ll have to set a schedule this morning, and hope they make a custom of stopping business midday.”

“We will take rest breaks when you need them, Daniel, that’s just the way things are.”

“I don’t want to endanger the negotiations by appearing weak, Jack,” Daniel said.

Jack gave him a look that seemed to be comprised equally of irritation and understanding.  “You’ll hold together, but if your loyal whatever I am insists on a break, what are they going to do?”

Shrugging, Daniel walked across to examine a piece of artwork on the wall.  It showed a man in what was clearly a throne, a snake whispering into his ear as he passed judgment on petitioners.  The snake bore an uncanny resemblance to a Goa’uld symbiote.

“I don’t think these people have had to deal with the Goa’uld in a millennium at least, but it’s clear that they’ve encountered them.  Look at this artwork.  I mean, is it any wonder that the snake is viewed as evil by so many Earth cultures?”

Jack wandered over and examined the piece.  “I hope you’re right about the Goa’uld not being back here for a while.”

“They had naquadah mines in the mountains to the north, but they’ve been tapped out completely.  Not even scraps remain.”

“We know this for certain?” Jack asked.

“The Siktari have been very receptive to the idea of trade.  Sindar’s actually been back and forth here a bit with a couple of scientific teams while we worked out just what there was here to trade for, but until now he’d never had to deal with their highest echelon, so the formal language thing never came into play.”

“And he requested you for the formal negotiating team?” Jack asked and Daniel nodded.  “Actually, I seem to recall signing a form a few weeks back, feeling a little irritated that you were running off with yet another team.”

Daniel shrugged.  “I need to find time to train a couple of translators, or better yet, we need to send a couple of our guys back to school to learn more languages.  And not the diplomatic school quick and dirty method, these need to be real linguists, with a clear understanding of how the languages they learn work.  Otherwise, it’s harder to make the connections.”

“Isn’t knowing a language kind of like knowing a language?  Same thing no matter what?”

Daniel rolled his eyes.  “It’s like the difference between knowing how to drive a car and knowing how to fix one when it’s broken.  If you have no nuts and bolts knowledge, it’s a lot harder to take what you’ve learned in one language and apply it to another.  Admittedly, the more languages you learn, the better understanding of those nuts and bolts you have, but you need to learn how to think about language rather than just how to express yourself.  How meanings are formed, what the basis for --”

Jack waved his hands, looking glazed.  “You’ve got me convinced.  If you can think of anybody who might benefit from that kind of training, tell me who and where to send them.  I’ll put it to Hammond and see what he says.”

Daniel blinked, a little surprised by the ease of Jack’s agreement.  He wasn’t remotely surprised that Jack didn’t want to hear about it.  It was actually pretty normal for Jack to find his linguistic explanations too much to listen to.  Still, usually, he just shut Daniel up.  He didn’t agree to look into the feasibility of Daniel’s suggestion.

“So, breakfast,” Jack said, rubbing his hands together, palms in.  “Let’s go.”

It hadn’t been twenty minutes yet, but Daniel just went along with him.  It was easier than fighting, and he was beginning to feel a little more awake.

* * *

“What are you still doing here?”  Tony looked up to see Dr. Fraiser framed in the doorway to Dr. Jackson’s office.

“I’m reading SG-1's mission reports,” he said.

She smiled and walked in to sit down with him at the table.  “That doesn’t really explain why you’re here so late.”

He shrugged.  “I was here all night last night, coordinating the search efforts and the forensic teams, and spelling Major Carter and Sgt. Siler at monitoring that . . .”  He shuddered, remembering the live feed that showed Daniel’s torment.

“Right,” she said sympathetically.  “But shouldn’t you still be at home?  Getting some rest?”

“I don’t think I can sleep, doctor,” he said.  “And I’ve still got a lot to learn about the SGC.”

“Maybe so, but you have to work in the morning, don’t you?”

“I do,” he said, sighing.  Then he shook his head.  “Those four people have had so many incredible and awful things happen to them, yet they keep it up, day after day.  Dr. Jackson comes back from . . .”  He couldn’t think of the right word, or anything he wanted to say aloud concerning what had happened in that basement.  “From that horror . . . and he’s already back on a mission, trying to help someone else.  It’s hard to imagine that level of dedication.”

“He’s an impressive man, Daniel is,” she agreed.  “Which mission are you reading right now?”

He looked down.  “P7J‑989,” he said.  She shook her head uncertainly.  “They got put into cryogenic sleep, and memories were pulled out of Dr. Jackson and Col. O’Neill’s minds to entertain a bunch of people who were also in cryogenic sleep.  I guess the guy in charge called himself the gamekeeper.”  He scanned through.  “Yeah, the gamekeeper.”

“I remember that,” she said.  “Over a year ago, that was.  Before then, none of us had any idea that Daniel had witnessed his parents’ deaths.  He doesn’t talk about himself much.”

He nodded, glancing down at the page in front of him, Major Carter’s descriptions of the events on P7J‑989.  Dr. Fraiser sighed and stood up.  “Well, I strongly recommend you seek out the barracks here at the very least and get some sleep, young man.  You’ll be of much more use to Dr. Jackson when he gets back if you’ve gotten sufficient rest yourself, since I sincerely doubt he will have.”

“Yes, doctor,” he said.  “I’ll go find a bed in a little while.”

“Good boy,” she replied.  “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“What’s kept you here so late, if I can ask?”

She turned at the door, her expression unreadable.  “I had to cast Glen Phillips’ arm today,” she said.  Tony nodded.  “He made allegations of brutality against me, so I had to fill out a ream or so of forms on top of writing my report on Daniel’s condition for the court martial that the general’s convening in a couple of days.  I only wish he’d had cause.  I would feel so much better.”  She gave him a rueful grin and left.

Tony finished reading Major Carter’s report on P7J‑989, then turned off the lights and left Dr. Jackson’s little domain.  He hoped they locked Major Grady and Glen Phillips into little rooms and threw away the keys.


	72. Chapter 72

Daniel felt very safe as he followed Prabjot into the council chamber.  The awareness that Jack was at his right shoulder, Teal’c was at his left shoulder and that Sam was right between them behind him gave him a feeling of security.  There was a large u-shaped table with seven chairs.  Behind five of the chairs were men, behind one was a woman and Prabjot walked to the seventh.  Daniel was surprised to see a woman at the council chamber given the status women held in this society.  Then Prabjot introduced the members of the council and it became clear.  Manjit was standing in proxy for her husband, who was too ill to attend the session.  This was a new side of the female position in this culture.  Since neither Sindar nor Kovacek had mentioned it in their interim reports, Daniel had to guess that this was a recent development.

He engaged in the greeting ritual and sat down at the table that had been placed for him.  It had two chairs, so he glanced up at Jack and the colonel joined him.  He introduced his ‘escort,’ but before he could go farther, Padma, the prince of the nation and leader of this council, interrupted him.  “If you please, who is the woman standing proxy for?” he asked.  “And is it usual for your women to stand soldierly duties in proxy for their men?”

Daniel opened his mouth and closed it, considering how best to answer that question.  “Major Carter is not standing proxy for anyone, she’s here in her own right.”  Padma’s eyes widened.  “Among our people, women hold positions equal to men.  We do not differentiate the roles except insofar as biology dictates certain separations of function.”

They all seemed a little taken aback by this, but Padma nodded politely.  “So, we take up the negotiations again with a discussion of trade rules.”

Daniel pursed his lips.  “I’m afraid we can go no further into negotiations until the matter of our people’s disposition is settled.”

Padma blinked then said, “Ah, you mean Prakash and Morgan, they will be turned over to you as soon as is practical.  Perhaps at the midday break.  There is no trouble about that.  Now if we can return to negotiations.”

Daniel shook his head.  “I’m not authorized to negotiate trade agreements, sir,” he said very politely, in the most formal language possible.

Padma sat back looking stunned.  The man on his left, Abhur, said, “Then why are you here?”

“You requested our premier translator, and I am he,” Daniel said.

“I see.  If it is not an imposition to ask, why did you not come to the negotiations in the first place?  Prakash told us that he is relatively inexperienced.  Do you consider us not important enough to merit the best translator your people have available?”

Daniel smiled.  “It was not our intention to slight you in any way,” he said.  “We had planned for me to interpret the negotiations, but then I was injured and not permitted to work for some time.”

“Could not your wife come to stand proxy for you?” asked Prabjot.  “This we would have understood, but sending a less experienced man in your place . . . without informing us . . .”

Daniel swallowed.  “First, my wife has been dead these past six months, so no, she could not stand proxy for me.”  Prabjot murmured apologies and Daniel saw sympathy in the eyes of all those around the table.  “And second, we do not have this custom.  If a person cannot do his work, we find another who can fill in for him.  I am here only to solve this crisis, for I am not yet altogether well.”

All of them looked a little startled.  “You are ill?” asked Padma tentatively.

“I am injured,” Daniel said.  “Largely recovered, but I still tire easily, and my physician has not authorized my return to work yet.  But it is a high priority among our people not to leave our comrades behind.  Major Kovacek --”

“Has behaved in a most unacceptable manner,” Padma said decisively.  “He is not an issue.  I cannot comprehend why you would wish to retrieve him.  He has not represented your people well at all.”

Daniel took a deep breath.  “Major Kovacek’s situation is the issue I am here to resolve, and negotiations with our people will not resume until all of our people are returned to us.”

“I do not see how we can resolve that issue.  He made a most insulting remark that --”  Padma paused and shook his head, as if to rid himself of the rudeness.

“That can be easily remedied, sir,” Daniel said.  Padma raised an eyebrow, looking more than a little dubious.  “With your writ informing us of Major Kovacek’s arrest, I also received a message from Sindar Prakash informing me of the incident that led to that arrest.  Prakash, with great distress, informed me that he had mistranslated Major Kovacek’s words, but that he had no idea how to rectify the problem.”

“He mistranslated?” Padma asked.  “In what way?”

“He chose the lower form of your language, rather than the formal.  The words should have been rendered as follows:  ‘I have not the power to make decisions in that matter.’”  He broke the silence that followed by saying, “It’s all too easy with two languages that are as closely related, yet different, as your formal and common tongues are, to choose the verbs, nouns and modifiers piecemeal, as it were, and fit together a sentence that means something far different from the original intention.  Lt. Prakash was most upset that he had caused such a furor, and extends his apologies for the distress it caused.”

“Could you be more specific as to the exact error?” Padma asked.

Daniel nodded, and launched into a word for word explanation of the translation error, going into detail about the syntactical issues as well as word choice and conjugation mistakes.  Padma’s brother, Madesh, asked him a lot of questions, revealing a fairly detailed knowledge of linguistics.  Daniel could sense Jack becoming restive beside him, but when he glanced to the other man’s face, Jack waved for him to go on.

Daniel and Madesh babbled linguistics for a while until Padma said, “My brother, are we resolved that this was a simple error and not an insult?”

Madesh closed his mouth in mid-word and said, “Yes, my prince, we are.  I do not believe that it was intentional.”

“Very good, then, we can accept that.  And we will free Major Kovacek and restore his name.  But, Dr. Jackson, can you not stay to translate?”  Daniel closed his eyes.  The morning, short as it had been, was already telling on him.  His joints all ached, as did his muscles.  He also felt unutterably depressed and was holding himself together for this meeting by a force of will that was also exhausting his strength.  He took a deep breath and opened his eyes again to find that Jack was looking worriedly at him, as was Padma.  Before he could speak, the Siktari prince said, “No, I see that you cannot.”

Daniel smiled tiredly.  “I would like to, but as I said, I am not yet well.  Prakash is a skilled translator, and he speaks your common tongue well indeed.”

Jack tapped his arm.  “It’s time for a break, Dannyboy, like it or not.”

Daniel nodded, but, again, before he could speak, Padma cleared his throat.  “I believe it is time for                     us to take a break.  We will recommence at four bells.  At that time your men will be returned to you.”

“That would be most acceptable,” Daniel said, relieved not to be calling for the break himself, despite his conviction that Padma was calling it because he thought Daniel needed it.  He looked down at his watch and nodded.  He turned to Jack.  “We’re going to take a break until just past nine in the morning according to my watch and my calculations.  When we come back, they’ll be releasing Kovacek, Prakash and Morgan.”

“Sounds good.  You’ll have to tell me all about it after your nap.”  Jack smiled over at their hosts and everyone stood up at once.  Prabjot guided them back out of the palace and through the gates into the city.

“I would never have guessed such communications problems could exist,” the youngest of the elders said to Daniel.

Daniel smiled slightly.  “Our world has many languages, and problems turn up from time to time.”

“How many languages?”

“It’s hard to say,” Daniel replied.  “I speak twenty-three, and that’s only a small fraction of what’s out there.”

“Twenty-three languages?” Prabjot exclaimed.  “We have only two here, and the peoples across the river speak a . . . Madesh says it is not another language, but they do not always use words in the same way as we do.”

“We call that a dialect,” Daniel said.

“What is that?”

“When two languages still share the largest portion of their vocabulary, syntax and grammar, but there has been some shift, the younger, newer language is called a dialect of the older.”

“How many people are there on your world?”

Treading dangerous ground there, Daniel thought.  He looked around at the street they were walking through.  “There are many thousands of great cities like this one,” he said.

Prabjot’s eyes widened at the thought.  “Many thousands?”

Daniel nodded, then stumbled on an uneven paving stone.  Catching himself jarred sore muscles, and he made a small grunting sound.  Jack came up beside him instantly.  “You okay?”

“Fine, Jack,” he said.  “Just a little sore still, is all.  Don’t --”  Jack had started to put an arm around him but stopped at the low-voiced demand.  Instead he just patted him on the shoulder.

“I could send a sedan chair for you for the second session,” Prabjot said, and Daniel closed his eyes.

“That won’t be necessary, thank you,” Daniel said.

Jack looked back and forth between them.  “What did he say?”

“He suggested that they send a sedan chair for me when it’s time for the next meeting,” Daniel said, expecting Jack to laugh or make some sarcastic comment.

Instead, Jack turned to Prabjot and nodded.  “Yes, please do,” he said.

“What?” Daniel exclaimed.

“Now translate for me, Daniel, in case he didn’t get the message.”

“I don’t need a sedan chair.”

“Oh, come on Daniel, all the cool people here ride in sedan chairs, even I got that.”

“Jaaack!”

“Daniel, translate for me.”

Daniel turned to Prabjot who was smiling slightly.  “Colonel O’Neill thinks you should bring the sedan chair.”

“Then I will do so,” Prabjot said, bowing and leaving.

When they got inside the house, Daniel said, “Thanks, Jack, that’s just what I needed.”

“Did you hear what I said?” Jack asked.  “The cool people ride those things.  In fact, I’m not sure we shouldn’t consider it an insult that they didn’t send you one in the first place.”

“Cool old people and cool ill people and cool injured people ride in them,” Daniel growled.  “Able-bodied people walk.”

“Well, you’re not able-bodied,” Jack pointed out.  “Now it’s time for you to take a nice nap.”

“I don’t want a nice nap, Jack,” Daniel protested as the colonel guided him towards the stairs.  “And the kind of injuries I have heal better and faster if you move around rather than sitting still.”

“Dr. Fraiser told you to get lots of rest,” Jack said.  “I don’t think a twenty minute walk several times a day is quite what she meant by that.”

“This whole mission is not what she meant by that,” Daniel said as Jack guided him into the bedroom.  “I didn’t see you objecting.”

“Actually, Daniel, I would have objected very strenuously if I didn’t think that it would have been pointless.”

“Pointless?”

“Number one, you’re the only one who can do this.  Number two, you needed to do it for your own peace of mind.  Number three . . .”  He blinked contemplatively.  “I guess there isn’t a number three.”

“But sir,” Sam said, “we need to know what happened.  What did they say?  Is there a resolution?”

“We know that they’re returning our guys to us in a few hours.  That sounds like a resolution.  And they’re offering Daniel a sedan chair, that doesn’t sound like they plan to break off negotiations.  We can get details later.  Right now, Daniel needs a nap.”

“Right,” Sam said, smiling.  “You’re right, sir.”

“He’s right?” Daniel exclaimed.  “What, you’re all ganging up on me now?”

“Don’t get yourself upset, Daniel, you do need to sleep, you know it as well as I do.”

“When did you get so damned maternal, Jack?” Daniel asked, grimacing.  He did feel the need for a nap, and it was incredibly frustrating for Jack to be able to read him so well.  He sighed and gave Sam a beseeching look.  She leaned in, gave him a kiss on the cheek and then left the room.  Daniel pulled off his boots, pants and outer shirts, then climbed into the bed.  Jack forbore from commenting, which made Daniel a great deal happier with him.  For a moment, his mind danced around all the things he had to do, but then he took a deep breath to still it and by the time he let the breath out, he was out too.


	73. Chapter 73

Jack looked over at Teal’c.  “Remind me, murder is still illegal?”

“As far as I am aware, O’Neill.  Unless your laws have changed and I was not informed.”

He let out an exaggerated sigh.  “So I can’t go back and kill those two bastards without facing court martial, huh?”

Teal’c raised a conspiratorial eyebrow.  “Perhaps if I --”

“Is he asleep?” Carter asked from outside.

“He is,” Jack said, and she came inside.

“No planning murders without me, okay?” she said, sitting down on Jack’s bed and hitching backwards to cross her legs.  “I want in.”

“If I take action, Major Carter, it will be I alone,” Teal’c said.  “I cannot be court-martialed.”

“No, but you could be deported,” she replied.

“This is true,” Teal’c said, looking suddenly troubled.

“And we need you with us,” Jack said, sighing.  “We’ll have to let the military courts hash this out, but you think Hammond isn’t going for these guys’ balls, you would be sadly mistaken.  I’ve never seen him so angry.”

Carter glanced over at Daniel.  “Maybe we shouldn’t be talking in here.”

Jack grimaced.  “He’s asleep.”

“Yes, but will he stay asleep if we keep talking in here?”

“Well, I’m not about to leave him alone,” Jack said, looking over at the sleeping man.

“Of course not,” Carter said.  She reached into a pocket and pulled out a bicycle deck of playing cards.  “I thought we could do something quiet for a while.”

They settled down to a very quiet game of poker on Jack’s bed, all of them turning periodically to check on their sleeping teammate.

* * *

Tony looked up as yet another visitor for Dr. Jackson walked into the room, no knocking, no questions, just wandered in carrying a little basket off gourmet coffee.  How was it that they had all heard he’d been kidnapped, but no one knew that he was offworld just now?

“Where’s Daniel?” asked the woman, whose name Tony knew he’d been told but just now he couldn’t recall it.  “I wanted to see if he was okay.”

Taking in a deep breath to keep from demanding to know why everyone and his brother-in-law thought they should drop in on a man who’d been tortured to see if he was okay, Tony smiled and said, “He’s offworld at the moment.  There was a crisis on --”

“Offworld!” she exclaimed.  “But . . . General Hammond would never have authorized such a thing.  You must be mistaken.”

Her name came to him suddenly.  She was the head of the general administrative staff on base.  Fortunately, in his position as Dr. Jackson’s assistant, she didn’t actually come into his chain of command.  “I’m sorry, Major Henessey, but SG-9 had a linguistic crisis.  All of SG-1 went, as well as SG-2 and -3.  Dr. Jackson should be back sometime today or tomorrow, I believe.”

She blinked.  “I see.  I’ll just leave this, then?”

“Certainly,” Tony said.  He gestured toward the pile of like offerings.  She put her little basket down next to a bouquet of chocolate bars and tucked a card underneath.  When she had left, Tony found himself wondering just how one tactfully sent people like that away.  He was going to have to, when Daniel got back.  The man wasn’t going to be up to facing a horde of well wishers.  Of course, a lot would depend on whether Daniel wanted him to or not.

Tony sighed and went back to sorting the files that had arrived today.  Since his little conversation with Tolliver, that had been less chaotic, but there were still things he had to run by one of the linguists before he could even begin to guess which of them he should send it to.

And Daniel’s inboxes were still getting distressingly full.

* * *

Jack had just folded when Daniel stirred and sat up, eyes defocused without his glasses.  “Wha --” he said intelligently and Jack grinned at him gently.

Carter got up and walked over.  “How are you feeling, Daniel?” she asked him.

“Like someone stuffed foul-tasting cotton balls into my mouth,” he said, blinking.  “I hate that antihistamine.  Can I have some water?”

“Of course, Daniel,” Carter said, pouring him some.  “But do you feel better?”

He took the cup and drank, then squinted up at her.  “I feel like I’ve been asleep in the middle of the day, only it’s the middle of the night and I still haven’t gotten a decent night’s sleep, and all I can dream about is Grady’s . . .”  He shuddered.  “Grady.”

Jack stood up and walked over.  “This too shall pass,” he said.

Daniel looked up at him, raising an eyebrow.  “Not soon enough for my taste,” he said.  He reached out and found his glasses.  “What time is it?”

“Seven-thirty,” Jack said.  “You feeling a little more human now?”

“Actually, I’m feeling a little less human.  Give me a minute and I’ll fill you in on all the details of my conversation with the council.”  Daniel looked up at all of them as Teal’c loomed up next to Jack’s shoulder.  “A minute alone?” he suggested.

Jack nodded and got the others to leave the room with him.  “I thought you didn’t want to leave him alone,” Carter said.

“Not while he was sleeping,” Jack said.  “And not for long now, but a couple of minutes, sure.”

After a short time, Daniel came out and said, “I’m feeling a bit like I could eat, so why don’t we go into the dining room?  That way Steve can hear what’s happened.”

Jack nodded and followed him, sending for Williams on the way.  They got there to find all of SG-3 eating lunch, and Williams arrived a moment later.  Daniel walked in and sat down and a plate arrived a moment later.  “Steve, it looks like things are shaping up well,” Daniel said as the rest of them settled into chairs.  “Unless things go poorly this afternoon, we should have the rest of SG-9 back together and working again before the day is out.”

“That’s great, sir,” Williams said.  “How did you manage it?”

“Turns out to have been as simple as explaining the error,” Daniel said with a smile.  “Which startled me, frankly.  They have such limited linguistic variation here that they have difficulty understanding how anyone could make an error like that, but once I persuaded them that it was merely an error, they started being very willing to reconsider continuing the negotiations with Kovacek and Sindar.”

“What exactly did they say, Daniel?” Jack asked.

As he ate, Daniel began to give a précis of the conversation in the council chamber.  Jack was once again very impressed by the ease with which Daniel had handled the councilors and the prince.  He’d sat there, listening, during the meeting, wanting minute by minute updates on exactly what was being said, but things had been touchy enough from time to time that he didn’t like to interrupt, in case he caused problems.

When Daniel drew towards the end of his tale, he faltered in his careful accounting.  Jack was briefly worried, remembering how unwell Daniel had looked towards the end of the negotiating session.  But Daniel’s next words relieved his mind greatly.  “After that, Madesh, the prince’s brother, and I had a long talk about the specific details of the error and linguistics in general.  He seems to be very interested in the subject.”

“Long talk?” Jack asked in the nature of a verification.  Daniel nodded, blue eyes going slightly ironic.  “Specific details?”  Daniel nodded again, and his lips quirked upwards in suppressed amusement.  “Linguistics in general?”  Daniel rolled his eyes, but his little grin grew more pronounced.  “Skip it, then, would you?”

“Sure, Jack,” Daniel said.  “The prince said more or less what you just said once we’d established that the ‘insult’ had been nothing more than an error.”  Jack snorted, gaining an appreciative gleam from Daniel.  “He promised to restore Kovacek and the others to us and that’s that.  Then both you and he asked for a break, and we came back here.”

Jack raised an eyebrow.  “So, with any luck, we should be out of here this evening?”

“We’ll see when the negotiations recommence this afternoon,” Daniel said guardedly.

Jack nodded.  “All right then,” he said.  He composed a carefully worded report to General Hammond and sent two of SG-3 to the gate with it.  Williams and the remaining two members of SG-3 went out of the dining room, leaving SG-1 alone again.

Daniel looked over at Jack and said, “I’m not riding in that sedan chair, even if they bring it.  I’m not that weak.”

“One of the things you’re trying to do is convince them that you can’t take up the negotiations as translator, right?” Jack said reasonably.

“I think that’s been established already.”

“Well, this could serve to emphasize the point,” Carter said.  “I think.  What exactly _is_ a sedan chair?”

“A big chair on sticks,” Daniel said.  “Either two or four large men carry you in it, depending on the size of the chair, the size of the individual, etc.  In many cultures, the bearers would be slaves, but not here.  The Siktari don’t practice slavery.”

Carter nodded.  “Right.  I’ve seen one before, I just wasn’t sure of the name.”

“I’d look like an idiot, and I won’t do it.  Walking won’t do me any harm.”  He smiled at all of them, an ironic glint in his eyes.  “And I suspect that if we could consult with Dr. Fraiser, she’d agree.”

Jack shrugged, figuring that the battle would be more easily fought when the chair was actually present.  He glanced at his watch.  “Well, we’re due back for negotiations in about an hour, so I’m guessing we should expect our guides back here in as little as half an hour.  You got any special clean up or preparations you’d like to make before then, Daniel?”

Daniel shook his head.  “Not really, unless I look like crap or something.  Do I?”

“You’re looking considerably more awake than you did,” Carter said, and Daniel appeared to be unreassured by this less than wholehearted endorsement.

“Great,” Daniel said.  “At least I won’t have trouble convincing them I shouldn’t be here.”  He pushed his plate away, and Jack noticed to his satisfaction that it was mostly clean.  “Padma asked me if I could possibly stay, but I must have looked dreadful there for a minute because he answered his own question before I could.  In the negative.”

“You looked like you were going to pass out or something,” Carter said before Jack could comment.

“Indeed, you looked extremely unwell.”  Teal’c sounded very grave.  Jack felt he hardly needed to add his own observations in with theirs.

Daniel closed his eyes, leaning back in his chair.  After a moment he said, “Guys, Sam, Teal’c, could you give me a moment alone with Jack?”  They exchanged glances and Carter nodded, standing up.  “Actually, could you guarantee me a moment alone with Jack?” Daniel corrected himself.  “No one would intentionally intrude, I’m sure, but people do wander in . . .”

“Sure, Daniel,” Carter said.  “I got this door, Teal’c.”

“Then I will take the other, Major Carter,” the Jaffa said.  Carter reached out and gave Daniel’s shoulder a squeeze as they moved towards their separate posts, opened the doors and shut them behind them.

“What’s up, Daniel?” Jack asked, walking around and sitting opposite him at the table.

“Jack, I don’t want you to take offense at this, you’ve been an enormous help to me, and I really don’t want you to stop . . .”

Jack raised an eyebrow.  “Daniel, you aren’t going to offend me.  What is it?”

“You like this Dr. Lisle person?” Daniel asked, looking tentative.  “You trust her?”

Ah, so that was what this was about.  It suddenly made sense.  “Yes, I do,” Jack said, relieved that Daniel was broaching the subject himself.  “She has a lot in common with Catherine.”

“Does she?”

Jack nodded.  “What are your concerns about seeing a therapist, anyway?”

Daniel shrugged.  “I don’t know.  Most of them seem to think that I’m a nutcase, in need of permanent therapy.  They take one look at my back story and it’s like they can’t wait to get their hands on my psyche, to root around and see if they can’t build a better Daniel Jackson.”

“I don’t think Harry’s that sort, Daniel,” Jack said.  “Truly.  And if she is, I’m sure we can disabuse her of the notion.”

Daniel shook his head.  “Jack, I don’t think you know enough about me to be able to say something like that.  About my back story, I mean.  It’s just -- if you go into a therapy situation, you’re pretty much supposed to be honest about things, and there are things I just don’t talk about.  To anyone.  Things I don’t want on file anywhere.”

Jack blinked.  “Why?  My life’s been laid pretty bare in my military files.”

“You don’t have much choice, Jack.  You signed a paper when you were about eighteen or twenty-two or somewhere in there giving the military complete access to your life.”  Daniel bit his lip uneasily.  “I didn’t.  I wouldn’t have.”

“What is there in your past that you want to keep hidden so badly, Daniel?” Jack asked.  “Can’t you just tell me?”

Daniel didn’t respond immediately, and when he did, it was obliquely.  “Every therapist I’ve seen in the past, apart from McKenzie, already knew most of it.  That’s why they were there.  This would be the first time I ever voluntarily saw someone, and part of why I’m considering it is that I’m sure that Janet and Hammond are already working out ways to make me do it.”

Jack shrugged uncomfortably, aware of his part in those exact plans.  “I’m not sure I’m the right person to help you through the most recent incident, and you’re making me very nervous with all these incomplete hints about your past.  It makes me feel like I’m floundering without an oar, and I don’t want to do something wrong.”

Daniel thumped his head down onto the table.  “Damn it, Jack!  That’s the kind of response I don’t want to hear.”  He looked up.  “I’ve been through some pretty bad experiences, but I survived it.  I’m a whole, healthy, mature adult human being.  I don’t see why that isn’t good enough.  Why do people look at me, when they know the whole truth, and see someone who needs to be treated gently, carefully . . . I just want to be able to do my job without having other people wonder if I’m going to fly into pieces at any moment.”

“That’s why they want you to see Harry,” Jack said, scratching his head.  When he said he didn’t feel up to helping Daniel right now, he wasn’t kidding.  All these hints, all this dark suggestion about Daniel’s history left him feeling very much out of his depth.  “So they can feel confident that won’t happen.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.  “Band-aids don’t fix severed limbs,” he muttered.

Jack leaned back, stunned, and stared at his friend.  “Care to explain that remark?”

Daniel looked up, seeming startled.  “Did I say that out loud?”

“Yes, you did, Daniel, and it’s a little more than I can just ignore.”

The archeologist folded his arms across his chest, giving him a peculiarly intent look.  “I was exaggerating, Jack,” he said slowly, as if that would make it more believable.

“Were you?”  Jack gazed solemnly at him.  “I don’t think so.”  Daniel’s look grew even more intent, as if he were trying to change Jack’s mind by will alone. Jack sighed and looked down at his hands, then looked back at his friend, meeting his eyes.  “I thought you trusted me enough to talk to me about this stuff.”

Daniel looked for a moment as if he had struck him, but the archeologist rallied quickly.  “I trust you not to think that being raped will automatically turn me into a basket case,” Daniel said.  “But there are things I’m not ready to talk about to anyone.  Not even to you.”

Not even to him . . . that was a good sign.  It implied that when Daniel was ready, he might actually talk to Jack about it.  Taking a deep breath, Jack considered this.  “So, let’s see if I’ve got this right.  You feel like you need to tell Harry about this . . . whatever . . . that you’re dealing with -- or not dealing with as the case may be -- in order to have a legitimate therapeutic relationship?”  Daniel nodded, looking very tense and unhappy.  “But you’re not ready to talk about it to anyone?”  He nodded again and Jack grimaced.  “How are you going to resolve that?”

Daniel shook his head thoughtfully.  “I’ve got a copy of a file I can let her read, so she has the history, and tell her it’s off limits, except insofar as it directly impinges on this situation.”  Jack raised his eyebrows and Daniel shrugged, clearly not happy with the solution.  “It’s all I can come up with,” he said.  “There’s no point in talking to the woman if I’m going to lie to her.”

“So, if she can read this file, can I?” Jack asked.

“Not . . . yet . . .”  Jack couldn’t help feeling a little hurt, and some of that must have shown on his face, because Daniel bit his lip again.  “I’m sorry.  I’m just not ready.  I’d only show her because it would be like asking a doctor to operate without knowing the patient’s history.  It wouldn’t be fair to her.”  Jack grimaced and opened his mouth.  “And don’t even try to tell me it isn’t fair to expect you to go on working with me without knowing.  This particular trouble has been with me since long before you met me, so it’s no different than anytime during the last three years.”


	74. Chapter 74

As Jack started to speak, there was a knock at the door.  Sam opened it and stuck her head in.  “They’re here, sir.”

Daniel sat up straight and his expression cleared.  “We’d better go.”

Jack caught his arm as he turned away.  “Daniel, if you can’t talk about it now, I understand, but remember, I’m here.  I’ll always be here, even when you annoy me and when I irritate the crap out of you, I’ll be there for you to unload on.”

Daniel smiled faintly.  “Thanks, Jack.  I’ll remember.”

Jack nodded, then opened the door to let Teal’c know.  They headed out into the hall and headed towards the entrance.  “Oh, Daniel?”  The archeologist turned, raising an eyebrow.  “You are riding in the sedan chair.”

“Jaa-aack!  I can walk.”

“I know you --”

“Of course you can walk,” Carter said, giving Jack a look that shut him up.  He watched in bemusement as she walked up to Daniel and touched his arm.  Her voice took on a worried, almost maternal note.  “Here, let me help you.  Just put your arm through mine and . . .”  She was actually doing it.  Jack was having trouble controlling his reaction.  The two of them came to a halt as Carter wrapped her arm through Daniel’s.  “There, see?  He’s fine, colonel.  I’ll just stay right with him.  Come on, Daniel, let’s go.”  The archeologist didn’t move.  Jack glanced at Teal’c which proved to have been a mistake.  The extraordinarily bland look on the Jaffa’s face nearly caused Jack to lose it.  Carter looked up at Daniel worriedly.  “Are you really feeling up to this, Daniel?” she asked.  “You’re looking a bit tired.  We could ask them to give us another hour, and you could go lie down with a cool cloth on your forehead.”  Jack bit his lip hard to keep from laughing as she touched Daniel’s cheek and forehead with the back of her hand.

“I’m fine, Sam,” Daniel said through clenched teeth.

“How about just a glass of water?  Before we go.”  She squeezed his hand.  “I’ll just go fetch you a glass of water.”

“I don’t need a glass of water,” Daniel said.  “I --”

“Let me just make sure my canteen has really cold water in it, then, so if you get thirsty on the way, you can --”

With infinite care, Daniel very gently pulled away from Carter.  He turned a level, irritated glare on Jack.  “Fine, I’ll ride in the damned chair,” Daniel growled, stalking the rest of the way out of the building.  Teal’c, a smile barely hinted at in the set of his lips, followed him closely.

Jack hung back a moment and gave Carter an approving look.  “Good work, major,” he said.

“Sir, I don’t know what you mean,” she said, but there was a twinkle in her eyes that belied her words.  They reached the door to find two men tucking a lap blanket around Daniel’s knees.  The archeologist gave both him and Carter a non-smile and sat while they hoisted him up to shoulder level.  There was an awning over the chair, but no curtains to conceal Daniel’s red face.

Jack almost felt bad about coercing him into this.  Almost.  He saw Williams watching from behind the wall and beckoned him over.  “Are you on duty right now?” he asked in an undertone.

“No, sir.”

“Then why don’t you come along, since we’re supposed to be getting your team back now.”

Williams grinned and joined the party, and the four of them walked along behind the chair.  Daniel kept up his dignity, much to Jack’s surprise.  He’d half expected that the archeologist would slump in the chair, looking grumpy, but he didn’t.  He sat upright and looked around.  Jack wondered if his higher perch gave him better views of some of the culturally interesting sights of the city.  The trip was a little slower, due to the measured pace the men carrying the sedan chair kept up.

They reached the front entrance to the palace and the bearers very carefully lowered the chair, keeping it level.  A servant stepped forward from the door and helped Daniel out of it.  The archeologist immediately turned to Carter.  “Sam, has there been a UAV reconnaissance of this planet?”

“Yes, but it avoided the city.  We thought it would be . . . I don’t know . . . rude . . . to buzz the Siktari.”

“Right,” Daniel said.  “I just -- I caught tantalizing glimpses of what looked like gardens on top of some of the houses.”

“Another time, Daniel,” Jack said, “we’ll see if they can arrange a nice tour for you.”  Daniel gave him a suspicious look which Jack returned with pure innocence.

They walked into the meeting hall to an unexpected scene.  All three of the detained members of SG-9 were standing at a table that had been set up next to the one SG-1 had sat at during the morning’s negotiations.  All of the councilors were present, seated, but Padma had a young woman standing beside him.  A very pretty young woman, dressed in blue cloth that glittered with silver embroidery.  Her black hair was piled atop her head in elaborate coils and she was looking at Daniel with something that closely resembled appraisal.  Jack had an odd, sinking feeling of deja vu.

Daniel greeted the Siktari prince with a bow and a flow of incomprehensible words.  Padma stood and spoke, gesturing at the young woman.  Jack glanced for enlightenment at Daniel, and found his friend staring like a deer caught in the headlights -- if deer ever had blue eyes.  He turned again to Padma and the young woman, his sense of foreboding having been confirmed.

After a moment of frozen astonishment, Daniel spoke very soberly, very seriously.  Jack split his attention between Padma’s reaction and Lt. Prakash’s, since the lieutenant could understand what was being said.  He nodded very slightly, as if approving of what Daniel was saying.  Jack turned back to Padma who was now nodding.  The girl looked both disappointed and relieved, an interesting combination.

Padma spoke for a moment, then Daniel turned to him.  “We can all sit down now,” he said.

“What was that all about?” Jack asked.

“You have three guesses,” Daniel said dryly.  “And the first two don’t count.”

“Ah.”  Jack sat down next to Daniel and gave Carter and Teal’c a look over his shoulder.  They sat, listening to Daniel and Padma babble incomprehensible sentences back and forth, and Jack wished he could legitimately order Lt. Prakash over here to quietly translate for him, but from the looks of things, he wasn’t even translating for his people.  He was listening with every fiber of his being, as if trying to absorb something.  Probably Daniel’s unbelievable skill.

Finally, Daniel turned to him and said, “They’ve agreed to go on negotiating with Sindar and Major Kovacek, but they want to have a feast in my honor tonight.  I gather Madesh spoke rather extensively to Sindar and the others over the past hours, and they’ve been embarrassingly complimentary about me.”

“Complimentary enough that the prince went and found you a wife?”

“It’s his daughter, Jack,” Daniel said sounding weary.  “And they wished to honor me as well as provide me with someone to help look after me in my current state.  At least that’s what he said.”

Jack tilted his head, worried.  “Do you think you’re up to a feast?”

“I think I’d better be,” Daniel said, rising.  “It’s starting roughly now.  First we’ll have entertainments and then food.  I’ll hold up.”

Padma came towards them and put an arm around Daniel’s shoulders, guiding them into another room.  Jack stayed close to Daniel, as did Teal’c.  They entered a room with low tables, cushions and a large open area in the middle.  Daniel sat next to Padma, with Jack on his other side.  Teal’c knelt behind them, and Carter sat close to Jack.  Kovacek sat close beside her.  Jack suspected that might have something to do with the concerns the members of SG-9 had expressed about visiting females.  Padma clapped his hands once everyone was settled, and the entertainment began.

A pair of jugglers came out, starting off slow with three batons each, then they started throwing them back and forth.  Assistants came out and tossed them extra batons until the pair of them had twelve going at once.  Then they tossed out the extra six and Jack’s eyes widened when the assistants lit them on fire and traded them into the pattern again for the unlit batons.  Meanwhile, during all of this, both men bounced and danced and did flips.  It was an incredible performance.

When they finished, they were met with loud applause from the SGC personnel while the Siktari let out cries of pleasure and approbation.  A singer followed them, and Jack listened politely.  It was a style of music he didn’t much admire, kind of shrill, though Daniel seemed pleased enough.  A series of other acts followed, and Jack kept a close eye on Daniel’s energy level.

Eventually, great steaming platters of food were brought out.  Daniel, who was putting on a good show of attentiveness despite the fact that he was flagging visibly to Jack’s more experienced eye, perked up a little at the sight of the food.  Jack wasn’t sure if this was because it heralded the beginning of the end of the feast, or if it was because he was hungry.  Either way, he dug in enthusiastically.

Jack ate too, if a bit more warily.  Four courses later, he was beginning to feel a bit full, and Daniel leaned over to Padma and spoke briefly.  The prince nodded and rose.  He gave a very short speech, then helped Daniel to his feet.  The Siktari let loose their cries of approbation, and Lt. Prakash began to clap, signaling the rest of them to join in.  Daniel nodded, flushing.  Padma spoke again, and then Daniel turned to Jack.  “It’s time to go, Jack.  I need to sleep.  I’d like to head to the gate, but I really think we’d do better to stay long enough for me to sleep another few hours before heading back home.”

“Right, whatever you want, Daniel,” Jack said.

Daniel smiled, then turned to Padma, spoke briefly, shook hands with the Siktari prince, then turned back to Jack.  “I’m ready to go.”

There was no argument this time about the sedan chair, which Jack put down to Daniel’s eagerness to see what could be seen from the height of four men’s shoulders, but then he noticed that the archeologist was slumping down, not angrily, but wearily, in the seat.  Clearly Daniel had pushed himself to keep up with the celebration and was now paying the penalty.

When they got to the house and the bearers put the chair down, Jack and Teal’c moved in beside the archeologist on either side.  He looked up at them and smiled weakly.  “Sorry, didn’t mean to crap out on you guys like this.”

“It is of no moment, DanielJackson,” Teal’c said.  “Let us help you to bed.”

Once again, Daniel didn’t argue, which worried Jack no end.  He and Teal’c got him to bed, and Teal’c sat down to watch over him.  Carter stood in the doorway, watching worriedly.  Jack wanted to stay, but he knew he had to go check in with Kovacek, Feretti and Warren.  He nodded to Carter and went out to find SG-9 gathered just outside the door.  Williams was looking uncomfortable, and it was clear that he wasn’t sure what he should tell the others.  He knew almost nothing himself, in any case.

Jack sighed.  “Dining room,” he said shortly, and Williams led off in that direction.  Jack got them all sitting around the table and settled down at the head.  He looked down at his hands and then up again.  “What’s wrong with Dr. Jackson, sir?” Kovacek asked after a moment.  “I had thought he was very much on the mend when we left.”

Jack sighed.  “He was.  This is . . . new.”  Kovacek’s eyes widened.  “On Saturday morning, Daniel was kidnapped from the driveway in front of my house.  I was in Washington DC at the time with General Hammond.”

“Good lord!  But it . . . it’s only Monday now, right?”

Williams nodded and Jack gave Kovacek a ghost of grin.  “We retrieved him early Sunday morning.”

“Who the hell had him?” Morgan asked.

Time for the lie.  “We had an unsuspected NID operative on base, it appears.  Major Grady took advantage of my absence to grab Daniel and . . . we’re not altogether certain what their long term intentions were, but there was some torture involved.”  Jack shrugged.  “Neither had been fully debriefed when we left, so I don’t really know all the details of what happened.”

“But . . . if he was only retrieved on Sunday morning, then he barely had time to get some sleep before he came here,” Kovacek said.

Jack shrugged.  “It’s Daniel.  If we’d tried to make him stay home, he’d have worried himself sick.”

The diplomat’s eyes widened.  “Hell, I’m sorry sir.  If we’d stayed out of trouble, this wouldn’t have been necessary.”

“It’s my fault,” Lt. Prakash said.  “I made the error that created the situation.”

It looked for a moment as if the both of them were going keep arguing to try to claim the blame, but Sgt. Morgan cleared his throat and said, “It hardly matters whose fault it was.”  Both men subsided, looking a little startled.  “It’s a damned shame that the boy had to come out here and mop up after us, but he did a fine job of it.  Let’s leave it at that.”

“You’re right, sergeant,” Kovacek said and Jack nodded.

“We’ll be heading out in the morning, I think.  I’m hoping we can let Daniel get a full eight hours of sleep before we go, but he doesn’t seem to be sleeping for longer than three or four hours at a stretch.”

Morgan nodded.  “Probably to be expected,” he said.  “This on top of the other,” he said, sighing disgustedly.  “It hardly seems fair.  You caught Grady, though?”  Jack nodded.  “Any accomplices?”

“He had one that we’re aware of, and we have him, too,” Jack said.  “Not apparently affiliated with the military, but with NID you can never tell.”

“True enough,” Morgan said sourly, and the others nodded agreement.

“So, that’s why Daniel’s so easily tired,” Jack said.  “We’ll take him back tomorrow and he’ll get the rest he deserves.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Kovacek said.  He shook his head.  “I liked Grady, too.  Damn the NID.”

Jack nodded, glad that Kovacek didn’t know the whole truth.  The man would be completely freaked if he knew what Grady had really done to Daniel.  “Well, I’ve gotten almost as little sleep as Daniel has over the last couple of days, so I’m going to go check on Feretti and Warren, find out if there are any orders from the base, then see if I can put in some shuteye.  Good night, gentlemen.”

They stood and saluted as he rose, so he returned their salutes and went out to find Feretti.  Warren was in bed, it being his off shift for duty, and Feretti gave him Hammond’s orders, which were to leave SG-3 as SG-9's back up, with Lt. Adler as their go-between for the housekeeper.  To accommodate local cultural norms, SG-2's Lt. Stone was being detached from her unit to remain with Lt. Adler.  The rest of SG-2 would return to the base with SG-1.

“So, how’s Daniel?” Feretti asked after they’d gotten the business out of the way.

“He’s sleeping a lot,” Jack replied.  “Hell, Lou, we still don’t know all of what happened.  Oh, and pass it on to the rest of your lot, Grady was rogue NID, and he tortured Daniel.  Nothing more.”

Feretti nodded.  “You want me to tell Warren when he relieves me in the morning?”

“Yeah, thanks, Lou.”

“When do you want to leave in the morning?” the major asked.

Jack shrugged.  “Whenever Daniel’s ready to go.  I don’t know how to predict that.”  Feretti nodded, and Jack went back to the bedroom he shared with Teal’c and Daniel.  Carter was nowhere to be seen.  He hoped she’d gone to bed.  Teal’c was sitting with his eyes open and Daniel hadn’t moved from the looks of him.  “You going to do your kelnoreem tonight?” Jack asked.

“I wished for you to return before I commenced, O’Neill.  I do not believe we need to keep watch, but I wanted to know that you were here.”

“Thanks,” Jack said.  He stripped to his skivvies.  “Carter gone to bed?”

“Yes.”  With that, Teal’c nodded then closed his eyes and entered the meditative state that made it possible for Junior to heal him.  It was creepy, no doubting it, watching him let the monstrous Goa’uld larva inside him take over, but it was also incredibly handy from time to time.

He walked over to make sure that Daniel was actually sleeping, then went back to his own bed.  Climbing in, he rolled onto his back.  Morgan was right, it wasn’t fair, what Daniel had to deal with.  Jack wondered what the hell past the man was keeping to himself.  What had happened to make him so very closed off?  Having his parents die the horrible way they had obviously wasn’t all of it.  Jack knew about that, and Daniel’s comments earlier had clearly been referring to things Jack didn’t know.

He’d said he had a copy of a file -- which implied that there was an original of that file out there somewhere.  Jack suspected that if he bent the right people in the right direction, he could find the original if it still existed.  However, that would be an enormous breach of trust.  Daniel didn’t trust many people, and Jack was disinclined to do anything that would make him feel betrayed.  Still . . . if there was something important . . .

Jack shook his head.  Trust was a two-way street.  He trusted Daniel.  Implicitly.  If it was important, if it made a difference in what they were doing, Daniel would have told him, would have said something.  Therefore, it didn’t and could be left alone for the time being.

That determined, Jack closed his eyes and went to sleep.


	75. Chapter 75

Daniel awoke feeling very sweaty.  The humidity must have risen while he slept because it didn’t seem significantly hotter.  The rain must have fallen.  He sat up and looked out the window from his seat on the bed.  He had no desire to rise. It was dark, he was still very sleepy, and he wasn’t sure what had woken him.  Then he looked at the other bed and saw Jack twitching wildly in his sleep.

Teal’c wasn’t in the room.  He must have needed the privy.  Jaffa might not sleep, but they most certainly needed to eliminate from time to time.

Daniel got up and crossed the room.  Jack’s voice emerged in a low, anguished mutter, but he was just as clearly asleep.  He contemplated the risks of awakening a special ops trained soldier from a deep sleep.  Reaching out, he tapped him lightly on the foot.  “Jack?”

The colonel came awake at once, sitting up sharply.  “Daniel, are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Jack, but I think you were dreaming.  You were talking, at any rate.”

“I was not,” Jack said, looking offended.

“You were.”

“Wasn’t.”

“Were.”

“Wasn’t.”

“I couldn’t understand you, but you were talking.”

Daniel’s eyes were adjusting to the dimness of the light, and he saw Jack’s expression soften.  “Did I wake you?”

“I don’t know.  Something did, but I’m not sure what.”  He sat down on the edge of Jack’s bed.  “Were you having a nightmare?”

Jack blinked at him.  “I don’t have nightmares.”  Daniel just gave him a look, and he sputtered defensively.  “I’m a colonel in the United States Air Force.  We don’t have nightmares.”

“Really?”

“We have . . . troubling dreams.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.  “So, were you having a troubling dream?”

Jack sighed.  “A doozy.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”  Daniel figured that Jack was doing this service for him, the least he could do was return it.

Jack’s eyes widened, though, and he licked his lips.  “I’m -- I --”

Daniel drew back uneasily.  If Jack didn’t want to talk to him, he could understand that.  “I’m sorry, I’ll just --”

“No, don’t,” Jack said, reaching out to forestall his attempt at leaving.  “It’s -- it was about you, Daniel,” he said.

His movement arrested by those words, Daniel sank back down to the edge of the bed.  “About me?” he asked.  “What about me?”

Jack sat up and looked about as vulnerable as Daniel had ever seen him.  “Hell, Daniel, I saw those feeds, I saw what that bastard was doing to you, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.”

Daniel felt his insides curdle at the thought, but this moment wasn’t about him.  It was about Jack.  How would it have made him feel to see someone hurting Jack with no way to affect it?  “It wasn’t your fault, Jack.  There was nothing you could do.”

“That’s the problem.  I was so powerless, and . . . and . . .”

“And that’s what you’re dreaming about,” Daniel surmised.  Jack thumped his head against the headboard.  “I don’t know what to say.  This too shall pass?”

Jack snorted.  “Not soon enough.  Boy this sounds familiar.”

“Deja vu,” Daniel said.  They sat silently for a moment.  “I hate that you saw that,” he said after a while.  He could hear that his voice was very flat and unexpressive, and he wondered what Jack made of that.  He was afraid he sounded angry so he tried to explain.  “I don’t blame you, don’t misunderstand, but . . . it was bad enough that it happened.  And other people have seen it, people from the base, I mean, and I don’t know who!”  His voice rose in pitch a little and he heard it wobble.  He swallowed hard, trying to maintain control.  How could he go from nearly numb a second ago to the verge of tears so damned quickly?  He took a deep breath.   “I don’t know who knows what happened.”

“I’ll make sure you know when we get back, okay?” Jack said.

Daniel nodded, thankful for Jack’s manner.  Fussing would send Daniel over the edge and he didn’t need that right now.  He bit his lip.  “And I don’t know what you saw.  I mean, I know what happened, sort of, it all ran together a bit after a while, but I don’t know what it looked like.  I don’t know what conclusions could be drawn, and I really don’t like that.”  What would people, their own people, who knew the background, think of him afterwards?  Would they think he’d been willing?  He knew he’d ejaculated, more than once, a fact that some people might misconstrue.  What if they --

Abruptly he became aware that he was analyzing again.  Going off into his mind and running over and over things and leaving his observer wondering what had happened.  Jack was watching him closely.  He bit his lip.  “It’s disturbing,” he said lamely.

“I can see that,” Jack said.  His brow wrinkled worriedly.  “But . . . are you saying you want to see the recordings?”

Daniel shuddered.  See himself?  See Grady?  The thought was nauseating, but without looking, he’d have to guess what other viewers would see . . .  “I don’t know,” he said, gulping.  Jack’s eyes were full of worry commingled with sympathy.  “I don’t know what I want, I just know that I don’t want anyone else to see them.  Are there going to be trials?”

“Courts martial,” Jack said.  “I don’t know if they’ll separate the two cases or not, probably though.”

“And those recordings will be evidence,” Daniel said with a sinking feeling in his gut.  “The presiding officers will have to view them, won’t they?”

Jack shrugged, which in this context meant that he knew the answer was yes but didn’t want to say so.  Daniel closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  Jack tapped him on the arm and he looked up.  “Try not to worry too hard about it,” the colonel suggested.

Daniel sighed and inched further onto the bed, leaning against the carved footboard and pulling his knees up to his chest.  He winced slightly at the pressure that placed on his posterior.  The discomfort passed and he gave Jack a humorless grin.  “It’s hard not to,” he said.  Jack nodded understanding.  Daniel decided that this side conversation had gone on long enough.  This was supposed to be about Jack’s ‘troubling dream.’  He turned the subject back.  “So, was the dream just the video feed, or was there anything else?”  He saw a flash of something on Jack’s face, but the man looked down at his hands before he could pinpoint it.  “What, Jack?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jack said, not looking up.

Daniel shook his head.  “Jack?  Don’t shut me out.”  His voice shook slightly and Jack looked up sharply.  “I can’t -- I can’t take that right now.”  Silence followed that statement for a long moment, and Daniel could feel his back muscles tensing up with the stress.

“Look, Daniel, I feel really guilty about this happening to you,” Jack said suddenly, sounding almost angry.  Only long association with Jack O’Neill’s emotional reactions enabled Daniel to let the tone of voice slide by without impacting him.  “Grady’s behavior was making me uncomfortable, but I misread him completely.”

Daniel blinked.  “So did I,” he said.  “That crap he was spouting off at me on Friday night, I thought he was one of those bastards who assume that any man who’s raped is secretly gay.”  He shook his head.  “He is terrifying, Jack.  I think back on things that happened in the last couple of weeks, and there weren’t any obvious clues.  I mean, there were hints that he had some kind of problem with me, but I don’t think anyone could have read the truth of it.”

Jack pursed his lips.  “Yeah, maybe,” he said on a sigh, looking away.  Daniel could tell he didn’t believe it, but he wasn’t sure how to convince him.  Jack shook his head.  “Look, I feel guilty, and that translated in my dream to . . . to . . .”

“To what?”

Jack had the air of a man who had changed the subject to avoid a minefield and succeeded in stepping right on a pressure plate he didn’t know how to get off of.  “I -- Daniel --”  Opting for silence in the face of Jack’s obvious perturbation, Daniel waited.  “You should go back to . . .”

Jack trailed off as Daniel started shaking his head.  “I’m not going back to sleep anytime soon, Jack.  Dawn’s coming.”

His eyes flicking to the window, Jack nodded, then looked down again.  “We found Glen’s house first,” he said.  “We’d intercepted some e-mails and knew that he was heading over to where Grady was keeping you.”

“Right,” Daniel said, wondering where this was heading.

“We still had no idea where Grady’s hideout was, we’d taken over his own house, and it wasn’t there.  So, knowing that Glen was going to go there, we staked him out.  And we waited.  And we kept our eyes on the video feed, so we’d know if Grady did something like moving you.”

Daniel stared at Jack for a moment.  “How long did you stake Glen out?”

Jack’s face clouded slightly.  “Three, maybe four hours.”  Daniel took a deep breath, and he tried to figure out what must have been happening at that point down in Grady’s basement.  “We weren’t sure what would happen,” Jack said.  “If Glen got a warning to Grady, he might have moved you or worse.  We didn’t dare take the risk.”  Jack was looking at him desperately, as if begging him to understand.

Daniel nodded, still trying to work out the timing, but he’d been asleep part of that time, so he couldn’t.  “When was that?” he asked.  Jack opened his mouth, but he couldn’t seem to speak.  The look on his face suggested something terrible, and Daniel put two and two together.  Jack wouldn’t be reacting like this if all it had been was images of Daniel sleeping.  “The dildo?” he asked.  Jack nodded mutely.  Another bit of addition occurred in his mind.  “You’re not . . . this nightmare didn’t include me blaming you, did it?  For not coming sooner?”

Jack looked up, and Daniel could see by the look in his eyes that Jack was afraid the nightmare was about to come true.  That Daniel was about to blast him for his supposed crime of delaying.  Jack’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed nervously.

Daniel shook his head.  “It makes sense, Jack.  You had to wait.”  Thinking about what might have happened if they hadn’t waited, Daniel felt his stomach turn over.  If Grady had decided to take him somewhere else or to . . . to kill him . . . he couldn’t have stopped him.  And then what about that damned voyeur?  “For all you knew, Glen would sit mute, or have a heart attack, or something.”  He could see that Jack was having trouble hearing him.  Not his voice or the individual words, but the content wasn’t entirely reaching him.  Daniel unfolded himself and reached out to touch Jack’s knee.  “Really, Jack, I don’t blame you.  You had to wait.”

The door opened and Teal’c entered.  Jack and Daniel both looked up.  “Is something amiss?” the Jaffa asked.

“We were talking about what happened,” Daniel said, scooting over.  “I figure there’s not much point in trying to sleep anymore.”

“The events of Saturday?” Teal’c asked.  “You wish to speak of them?”

“I’m not going to have much choice, now, am I?” Daniel replied.  Some of his dismay at that thought must have shown, for both Jack and Teal’c reacted to it.

The Jaffa raised an eyebrow and turned, as if for guidance, to Jack, who grimaced.  “I’m sorry, Daniel, but --”

Daniel let out a short, explosive sigh and said, “Don’t apologize, Jack.  There are debriefings yet to come, testimony at trials, and visits to Dr. Lisle.  I said, didn’t I, that part of the reason I was asking about her was that I knew I’d be forced to go see her.”  Daniel smiled weakly.  “I also know that I need an ear outside myself, a relatively neutral ear to hear my thoughts and reactions.”  He shook his head.  “There’s too much crazy stuff going on in my head right now, and I’m over-analyzing every thought, every action, every word that comes out of my mouth.”  Jack looked vaguely alarmed and Daniel hastily reassured him.  “Not when I’m working, just personal stuff.  While I was negotiating with the Siktari, it was like I was in a different part of my mind, a part not affected by the . . . by what happened.”

“Yeah?” Jack asked, not seeming altogether relieved by this information.

“I couldn’t have kept it up for long, I don’t think,” Daniel admitted.  “A few days more at most.”

They were both silent for a time.  Then Teal’c raised both eyebrows thoughtfully.  “There are occasions, DanielJackson, when you astonish me with your strength.”

Daniel was stunned, left with nothing to say.  Jack looked up at the Jaffa for a moment, and Daniel fully expected some kind of scathing remark.  A grin split Jack’s face and he gave a little nod.  Turning towards Daniel as he spoke, he said, “I’ll second that.”

Once again, Daniel was struck speechless.  He didn’t feel particularly strong.  Just at the moment he felt quite wobbly.  He cleared his throat and looked down, unable to meet either pair of eyes.  “Umm . . . maybe we’d better see if Sam’s awake yet.”

“I will go and find out,” Teal’c said instantly and left the room.

Daniel slipped off the bed and stood up, walking towards the window.  “Why do you do that?” Jack asked.

“Do what?” Daniel asked, turning partway around.

“Shut down whenever someone gives you a compliment about something that isn’t directly related to one of your many degrees.”

“I don’t,” Daniel said defensively.

“You do.”

“No, I don’t,” Daniel said, turning around to glare at him.

Jack had gotten out of bed and was pulling his pants on.  He looked up and said, “Yes, you do.”

“I don’t!”

“You do, Daniel.  I have witnesses.”

“I --”  Daniel shook his head.  “I really don’t know how to answer that question, Jack,” he said, feeling very frustrated.  What was he supposed to do when people said crazy things like that?  Encourage them?

The door opened and Sam walked in.  “I thought surely you’d sleep longer,” she said to Daniel.  “It’s only about midnight back home.”

Daniel shrugged unhappily.  “I’m not sleeping great,” he said.  “And now that this is done, I want to go home.  Much as I don’t want to face what waits for me, I really need to be in a place where I can have an explosion if I need to.”

Sam’s eyes widened and she took a step closer to him.  “Do you feel one coming?” she asked.  Unlike with her ludicrous behavior over the sedan chair, she was now genuinely worried, he could see it, and he didn’t want it.

He stepped back.  “No,” he said and she stopped, looking upset.  He hated distressing her, but he couldn’t handle her sympathy.  It was too enveloping, too smothering.  “I just think -- I want to go home.”

“Of course,” she said, pursing her lips and turning the sympathy down a couple notches.  He gave her a weak smile, and she seemed reassured.

“Feretti and his team are ready, O’Neill,” Teal’c said.

Jack was still tucking his shirt in.  “Good,” he said.  Everyone here ready?”

Daniel picked up his gear and pulled himself together.  “I’m good.  No sedan chair this time, right?”

Jack grinned.  “Can you imagine Hammond’s face?” he said, which didn’t reassure Daniel in the slightest.

“No sedan chair, right?” he asked again.

“How would I have arranged a chair, Daniel?” Jack asked.  “I don’t speak the language.”

“No, but Sindar does, and I was dead to the world from the minute we got back last night.”

Jack raised his eyebrows.  “I didn’t even consider the notion,” he said.  Squinting at Daniel, he raised an eyebrow.  “Maybe I should have.”

“I can walk back to the gate, Jack.  I walked out here, didn’t I?”

Jack nodded and walked over, putting a hand on his shoulder.  “A mission like this would be exhausting for someone who was in good health at the start of it.  For someone who was already worn to a thread . . .”

“I’m not that badly off,” Daniel protested.

“Yeah,” Jack said dryly.  “Nothing that a week’s rest wouldn’t cure.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.  “Let’s go.”


	76. Chapter 76

Jack nodded to Feretti as the major’s reduced team joined them and at Warren as they passed by him, on watch at the gate, all the while keeping an eye on Daniel.  His archeologist was being stubborn about his weariness, refusing to see that it was a natural product of what had happened.

He was thankful that the walk to the gate wasn’t overly long.

Daniel didn’t want to stop the two times Jack suggested it, but he made a few specious claims about his knee that forced Daniel to choose between calling him a liar or agreeing.  Opting for the latter, Daniel remained sourly silent the whole trek back.  Jack could see that Carter was worried, but he thought there wasn’t much to worry about.  This was pretty typical Daniel behavior.  It was the framing situation that made it seem so alarming.

They got to the gate and Jack said, “Daniel, dial home, would you?”

Without pausing in his stride, Daniel walked over and pressed the appropriate buttons on the DHD.  The gate whooshed magnificently to life and Teal’c sent the GDO code.  He nodded when he got the return signal, and they all headed through the gate, Jack bringing up the rear.

When he came through the gate, Hammond was waiting on the other side.  Jack raised his eyebrows as the gate fizzled out behind him.  The general was here late.  Jack wondered if he’d left the base at all since sending Daniel on this mission.  As Jack walked down the ramp, Hammond said, “Good job, people.  Dr. Fraiser is waiting in the infirmary.”

They all headed toward the door, and Carter and Teal’c flanked Daniel automatically.  The archeologist’s shoulders were slumping now that he was home and could admit to tiredness.

Jack started to follow them, but Hammond caught his eye.  He stopped, and when the others had gone out of the gate room, he said, “Yes sir?”

“How’s he doing?” Hammond asked.

“He’s okay,” Jack said.  “Very tired, very upset . . .”  His eyes narrowed when a possible reason for Hammond’s question occurred to him.  “Not ready for another offworld mission,” he said firmly.

“I wasn’t going to suggest one,” Hammond said.  “But the judges have come in to look the case over, and they want some kind of report from him.  They aren’t insisting on testimony, they say that the digital recordings are documentation enough of what happened to him, and they don’t want to make him go over it all in a court setting.  However, they feel that the file should include some kind of record of his debriefing.”

“And he hasn’t had one yet,” Jack said.  “I get you.  Well, I’m not sure where he is in terms of needing rest right now, sir.  He doesn’t seem to sleep more than four hours at a stretch.”  He shook his head.  “I think you’d better wait until morning at least.  I think he needs the chance to sleep.  The court isn’t closing yet, is it?”

“No, I just thought it would be better to get it out of the way as soon as possible so he doesn’t have it hanging over him.”

Jack shrugged.  “Not yet,” he said.  “But he does want to meet with Dr. Lisle.  He suggested it himself.”

“Good.  Now you’d better get to the infirmary before I hear from Dr. Fraiser.”

Jack nodded and joined the rest of his team.  Daniel was evidently first on the docket because neither he nor Fraiser was anywhere to be seen.  Nurses were scattered about with the various team members.  After a while, Fraiser emerged from one of the private examination rooms and shut the door behind her.  Jack submitted irritably to his exam, watching that door.

When Daniel emerged, he looked reasonably calm and collected, but Jack’s eye could see the signs of strain.  Clearly the exam had been hard on him.  The archeologist walked over to where a nurse was just finishing up Jack’s exam and said, “Where’s General Hammond?  I thought we could get this debriefing thing over with.”

“Daniel, tonight?” Jack said.  “You should get some rest.”

“I’m not remotely ready to sleep, Jack,” Daniel said seriously.  “It’s going to take a while, and I’d rather not have that hanging over me when I go to bed.”

Jack shook his head.  “Look, Daniel, it’s the middle of the night, you need your rest, besides, the general’s tired.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes and his brows furrowed.  “Bullshit,” he said.

“I agree.”  General Hammond emerged from the other side of a curtain that had blocked the door from sight.  Both men turned in surprise, Jack with a glower for the general, who ignored it blandly.  “If you want to debrief now, Dr. Jackson, I’m ready.”

His examination finally over, Jack stood up.  “Fine.  By all means, let’s get it over with.”

They started backwards.  Hammond called SG-3 and SG-1 into the briefing room to talk about the mission they’d just finished.  Daniel spoke at length about the negotiations, and the others put their observations.  Hammond listened closely, made notes, and asked questions.  Basically, it was a standard debriefing.  When it was done, Hammond dismissed everyone but Daniel.  Jack stood up, perplexed.  “Sir?”

“Stick around, colonel, but outside.”

Jack gave Daniel a look to make sure he seemed comfortable, then went out with the others.  He leaned against the wall outside, waving farewell to Feretti and the other SG-3 members.  Teal’c and Carter stayed with him.

After a moment, he said, “I thought this was going to be much more of a group event.”

“Maybe the general just wants to make sure Daniel’s comfortable with us hearing about it.”

“Hearing about it?” Jack exclaimed.  “Carter, we saw it!  And Daniel knows that.”

“That’s not quite the point, sir,” Carter said.

“Then what is the point, Major Carter?” Teal’c asked.

She opened her mouth and looked at him, then looked at Jack.  Then she shrugged.  “I don’t know,” she said.

Jack sighed disgustedly.  She knew.  She just didn’t want to try and explain it to a couple of ignorant males.

* * *

Daniel looked down at his hands as Jack and the others left.  Hammond stood up and walked over to the seat next to him and pulled out the chair.  “Son, I want you to know that I’m very proud of you.  After the trauma you had, to jump immediately in and take the lead to rescue another team is the act of a kind and courageous man.”

“It was nothing,” Daniel said, shaking his head.  “I was the only one who knew the language, so I did what needed to be done.”

“It was not nothing, Dr. Jackson,” the general replied.  “You have a gift for communication that is unparalleled in my experience.”  Daniel shrugged and to his relief, the general stopped harping on it.  “You look like hell,” he said after a moment.

“I feel exhausted,” Daniel replied.  He met the general’s eyes and in a sudden burst of honesty and volubility combined, he said, “I’m also angry, and utterly confused, but over it all there’s a layer of numbness that’s getting thinner as time goes by.”

“And when it goes --”

“I might just fall apart,” Daniel said.

The general put his hands on Daniel’s shoulders.  “It’s no terrible thing if you do,” he said, then he pulled him into a tight hug.  This broke through all of Daniel’s defenses.  He began to cry.  When he made to pull away, the general held him.  “It’s okay, son, let it out.”

The emotions this woke deep in Daniel’s heart were unexpected and almost primal in their intensity.  It had been a long time since he’d had anyone remotely resembling a father figure in his life, but over the years since he’d joined the SGC, Hammond had come to fill that role to some degree.  Now, it was as if the floodgates let loose.  He clung to the general, weeping as if his heart were broken.

Hammond held him until the storm of tears had passed.  Daniel drew back, feeling like an idiot.  “I’m sorry, sir, I --”  He blinked.  Hammond’s eyes were swimming with tears.  “Wha -- why are you -- are you all right, sir?”

The general pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his eyes.  “I’m very much distressed that this happened to you, Daniel.  You’re a man under my command, and this offense was committed by another man under my command.  That is deeply disturbing.”  Daniel nodded.  “More than that, you’re a friend, and someone has hurt you badly.”

“I’ll be fine, sir,” Daniel said earnestly, startled by the man’s exhibition of emotion.

Hammond smiled and squeezed Daniel’s shoulders before sitting back in his chair.  “I know that, son.  You have a strength in you that I sometimes think is the core of this operation.  But that you will recover doesn’t make the crime committed against you any less heinous.”  He paused, looking concerned.  “And now I’ve got to take you through it again for your debriefing.”

“I understand, sir,” Daniel said.

“The one positive thing is that once this is over, the courts are done with you.  They believe that the video evidence is more than sufficient to establish the crimes against you, and they don’t feel that the interests of justice require putting you through the ordeal of testifying.”

“So I don’t have to take the stand?  Won’t their defense attorneys want to cross examine me to try and claim I was willing?”  That had been a particularly horrifying image in his mind, trying to defend himself during cross examination.

Hammond shook his head.  “Grady and Phillips exchanged e-mails that made it abundantly clear that both of them were well aware of your unwillingness.  These are military courts, as well, which gives them some leeway in evidence collection.”

“But Glen’s a civilian.”

“Glen Phillips spent two years in the Navy fifteen years ago,” Hammond said.  “Honorably discharged.  He has a reserve clause in his discharge papers that has allowed us to recall him to face military justice.”

Daniel blinked.  “That’s . . . convenient.”

“Very,” Hammond said dryly.  “But he knew he was dealing with a major in the US Air Force, and that you work as a consultant for the military.  I have no qualms about a bit of fudging in this case, and I want this to stay strictly in house as much as possible.”

“In house is good,” Daniel said with feeling.  “Though you’ll have to put them in prison somewhere else, right?”

“Right,” Hammond replied, smiling slightly.  “You won’t ever have to see them again, Daniel.  I’ll make sure you’re aware of when they’re being moved so you can stay out of the way.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Now, we should move on with what we’re here for.  Do you want Jack in here for the debriefing?”

Daniel bit his lip then shook his head.  “Not just now,” he said.  “I know he knows, I don’t mind him knowing everything, but it would be easier right now if it was just you.”

Hammond nodded.  “Give me just a moment,” he said.

“Sure.”  Daniel watched the general get up and go out the door.  He closed it behind him, leaving Daniel alone.  He stood up.  There was already a video camera in place, ready for testimony, possibly in anticipation of this interview.  Sighing, he walked towards it, but stopped suddenly, staring at the device.  A camera.  A video camera.  Admittedly, this one ran on tape and was too large to hide behind walls easily, but it was still . . .

He’d been raped repeatedly, all of it caught on camera, possibly on several cameras.  The thought of now talking about it on camera made his gut ache.  Wasn’t there enough of him exposed already on this subject?

The door behind him opened and shut, but Daniel didn’t move, still staring at the camera.  Hammond put an arm around his shoulders.  “Why don’t we do this in my office, son?” he said.

Daniel turned and looked at him.  “But -- you -- we always video record testimony,” he said, faltering.

“Not this time,” Hammond said, guiding him away.

Dimly, Daniel knew he shouldn’t be reacting this way, that Hammond shouldn’t be making this exception, that this was all ridiculous.  It was the same video camera he’d testified in front of a half dozen times or more.  But he went with Hammond and sank into the comfortable chair the older man led him to.

After a bit of puttering, Hammond set a digital audio recorder on the front edge of the desk, and instead of going around to sit in his chair, he sat next to Daniel in the second visitor’s chair.  “I’ve told Jack to wait in his office, and when this is done, I want you to go home and get some rest.  He’ll stay with you at whichever house you’d prefer.”

Daniel nodded mutely.  Whichever house . . .  He shook his head.  “The house won’t bother me I don’t think,” he said after a moment.  “Grady could have done what he did in a parking garage or on a street just as easily.”  He paused, considering.  “I’m not so sure about my car.”

“I can understand that,” the general said.  “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.  For now, let’s get started.”  Daniel bit his lip and nodded.

Hammond turned on the digital recorder.  “Can you tell me, beginning with the confrontation in your office on Friday night, exactly what happened?”

Daniel sighed and started describing the conversation in his office Friday night and Grady’s behavior during it.  He went on to tell about the nightmares he’d had, embarrassing, but he couldn’t seem to prevaricate under Hammond’s kind regard.

From nightmares created by his unconscious mind into a nightmare created by a deluded and self-focused man, he told the tale, leaving nothing out.

* * *

Jack walked slowly to his office, contemplating what Hammond had said.  He’d emerged from the briefing room and shut the door, smiling when he looked up to see all three of them standing there.  “I’m going to take Daniel’s testimony in my office, folks, so there’s no point in your waiting around here.  Major Carter, Teal’c, I’m sure you could both use some rest.”

It had been a clear dismissal, and they’d both nodded and left.  Neither Jack nor the general spoke until they were well down the hall.  “So, general, what’s up?” Jack asked when Hammond didn’t usher him into the office.

“Colonel, I’d like you to wait in your office for Dr. Jackson and I to be through here.  Once we’re done, I think he’ll need to go home, and I’ll want you to stay with him.”

“Of course, general,” Jack had said.  What else could he say?  He could hardly tell the general that he couldn’t talk to Daniel alone, and knowing Hammond, he’d given Daniel the choice.  Jack had nodded and headed down the hall to the elevator.  When he reached his office, he walked in and sat down in his desk chair and looked around at the boring, ugly little room.

Waiting for Daniel.  There were several shades of gray in the concrete of the wall above his desk.  He looked around at the other walls and noticed a similar variety.  Waiting for Daniel.  Daniel undoubtedly know lots of different words for all the various shades of gray, in many different languages.  He could probably even tell interesting stories about the sources of those words.  Jack blinked.  Of course, there was such a thing as too much knowledge.  Waiting for Daniel.

Jack shifted in his chair.  There was a play with a name like that.  He’d studied it . . . second year of college . . . theatrical literature . . . stupid play, about a bunch of people not doing anything.  Just waiting.  They hadn’t even been ordered to wait.  They were just waiting.  Stupid play.

He fiddled with the pens on his desk, lining them up in neat rows, then making a square with them.  He probably had work he could be doing, but his brain didn’t seem to have much in the way of sense to it right now.  He created a triangle of pencils above the square of pens.  Waiting for Daniel.  Jack hated waiting.

There was a knock on his doorframe and Jack immediately scattered the writing utensils more randomly across his desk as he turned to see who was there.  Lt. Sciaparelli looked as if he hadn’t slept much in three days.  “How is he?” he asked.  “Dr. Fraiser just said he was back.”

“He’s okay,” Jack said.  “General Hammond’s debriefing him right now.”

Sciaparelli leaned against the doorframe.  “Okay?  What does that mean?  How could he be okay . . . how could anyone be okay after . . . I mean, he’s . . . he’s not going to quit, is he?”

Jack blinked in startlement.  “No,” he said instantly, his gut reaction.  He gave it a little thought and shook his head.  “No,” he said again.  Of course, being attacked by a co-worker could have that effect on him, he might want to . . .  He shook his head and looked up at Sciaparelli.  “No.  He wouldn’t.  It’s not Daniel.  I mean, it’s not the way he thinks.”

Sciaparelli sank down into Jack’s guest chair.  “This . . . I would never have expected something like this to happen.”

Jack gazed for a moment at the lieutenant, then leaned across to push the door shut.  Sciaparelli didn’t seem to notice, but Jack leaned on his desk, watching him intently.  “You don’t want to leave, do you?”

“God, no!” the young man said, eyes widening.  “If there had been nothing else, the last two days alone would have told me that Daniel needs someone to help block all the well meaning busybodies on this base.  You can’t see his desk for the cards and candy and coffee.  And a couple books.”

Jack’s eyebrows rose.  “You think Daniel’s friends should be kept away?” he asked mildly.

Sciaparelli flushed.  “That’s not what I said, sir.  I just don’t understand why all those people -- fifteen today, sir -- seem to think that a man who has been tortured needs to have people come in and _ask him about it_.”  His last words were emphasized by the force of his exasperation.

“I see your point,” Jack said.

The lieutenant was still venting his frustration, though.  “I mean, these are military personnel.  On a frontline base.  They know what you people face every day, and they’ve had all the training.  They should damned well know better!”

“I’m with you on this, Sciaparelli,” Jack said gently, raising a hand in the face of the younger man’s vehemence.  “I went out and found you for a reason.  Daniel’s a nice guy.  He’s friendly, he likes talking to people.  And he listens.”  Sciaparelli nodded.  “And people abuse that sometimes.”

“This isn’t that, sir,” Sciaparelli said.

“No, it isn’t,” Jack said, sighing.  “All of these people talking to Daniel, I don’t think most of them notice that he doesn’t generally share that much about himself.  They think they know him because he knows them . . . so they try to help him in ways that really don’t work for him.  I guess.”

“I’m about ready to kick the next person who drops by, unannounced and uninvited, to ‘see how Daniel is’ down the nearest flight of stairs.”  Jack snorted, and Sciaparelli rolled his eyes a little, as if to acknowledge the exaggerated nature of that reaction.  “Sir, you know him far better than I do.  Am I reading him wrong?  Or is he a man who prefers to return as quickly as possible to business as usual?”

Jack considered the questions.  “Well, I wouldn’t ignore the events altogether.  They will affect him one way or another, and you need to be mindful of that.”  Sciaparelli nodded.  “But, yes, I’d say you’re reading him right.”

“I’m just afraid that the amount of attention I’m seeing will . . . I don’t know . . . I have a feeling that he’ll have enough trouble concentrating as it is.  Each interruption will take away from that.”

“Maybe something can be done,” Jack said thoughtfully.  “I’ll mention your concerns to the general . . . or better yet, I’ll arrange a meeting for you and he tomorrow morning sometime.  Daniel won’t be coming in till the day after tomorrow at the earliest.  He hasn’t had nearly enough sleep.”  Sciaparelli looked a little daunted at the thought of addressing his concerns directly to the general, but he didn’t demur at all.  “Good,” Jack said, “that’s settled, then.  Let me know how he intends to handle the issue.”

“Of course, sir,” Sciaparelli said.

Jack sat back pensively.  “Didn’t you coordinate communications during the search?” he asked.

“Yes sir.”

“Then you probably have a pretty good idea of just who here saw that feed.”  Sciaparelli nodded.  “I’ll need a list.  Daniel wants to know.”

“Won’t that cause problems, sir?” Sciaparelli asked.  Jack tilted his head inquisitively.  “I mean, won’t that make him uncomfortable with those people?”

Jack shrugged.  “Undoubtedly, but I think it would be better if he was uncomfortable around a small number of people rather than wondering about half the base personnel.”

Sciaparelli blinked and looked somber.  “If you have some paper I can use, I could make you a list now, though I’m not absolutely certain who saw what at the various houses.”

“It will do for now,” Jack said with alacrity, finding a pad of paper and handing it over.  “Though if you could follow it up for me, get the rest of the names, I would very much appreciate it.”

Sciaparelli nodded and set to work.  Jack looked around his office, waiting again.  He wasn’t any good at waiting.  Waiting took patience, something Jack didn’t have in abundance.

The list was growing impressively long . . . maybe Daniel wouldn’t have to _wonder_ about half the base, maybe he’d just know.  Jack closed his eyes.  They were burning with exhaustion.  After a few minutes, Jack heard the small click as Sciaparelli put the pen down.  He opened an eye and looked at the younger man.  “Have you gotten any sleep in the last couple of nights?”

“Some.  It’s hard to go to sleep.  I keep thinking about what I want to do to those bastards.  I can’t help thinking that the world would be better off without them.”

“I can’t say I disagree,” Jack said.  “But I think you can trust that they won’t be getting out of prison -- ever.”


	77. Chapter 77

Daniel finally finished describing Saturday’s events with the ambulance ride back to the base.  Once he was settled into telling the story, the rational observer who lived in the back of his mind took over, and he discovered he remembered much more of what had happened than he thought.  Parts of it were very hard to talk about, like playing along with the kissing to get and keep the blindfold off.

He broke down twice, but Hammond didn’t push, he just helped Daniel through his emotional reaction and got him back on track when he was able to go on.

By the time he was through, Daniel was bone weary and felt ready to sleep for a week.  Hammond reached over and shut off the digital recorder.  “Is there anything else you’d like to say, off the record?”

“I was only half-kidding when I told Jack to shoot him,” Daniel said.  “There’s no chance of either of them getting the death penalty, is there?”

Hammond shrugged.  “It rather depends on what charges the court chooses to level.  If they decide to construe this as treason --”

“Treason?  I was attacked, not the country.  How could attacking me be construed as treason?”

“You are a consultant on a top secret military project.  Admittedly, Phillips undoubtedly thought that you were working on deep space radar telemetry, nevertheless, he interfered with an employee of the US government, threatened that employee’s life and collaborated in keeping that employee prisoner.  What they did to you could interfere with your work, and your work is vital to the safety of not just the United States, but of the entire planet.”

Daniel, shaking his head, looked down at his hands.  “Still . . . treason . . .”

“If, God forbid, they’d had you twelve hours longer, we wouldn’t have had anyone to send after SG-9.  Had there been an even more urgent need for your services, we would have had no idea where to find you.”

“True.”  He was still uncomfortable with the notion that attacking him, kidnapping him, was an act of treason.

“And the court could consider it treason in a time of war, given the ongoing threat from the Goa’uld, which would make treason a capital crime.”

“But Glen . . . Phillips, he didn’t know that.”

“Grady most definitely did, and we have no evidence that he didn’t tell Phillips.”  Hammond shook his head and held up a hand as Daniel started to speak.  “Don’t worry about that part of it, Daniel.  We’ll take care of them, and let you know the outcome.”

“Right,” Daniel said.  “So now what?”

“Now I send for Colonel O’Neill and the two of you go home and get some rest.”

“A little rest sounds like a good thing,” Daniel said.  He looked at his watch and blinked at the time shown there.  Four a.m.  “What day is it?”

“Tuesday,” Hammond said.

“I should get a few hours of sleep, then start back to work,” Daniel said.  “By eleven, say?”

Hammond shook his head.  “Not till Wednesday at the earliest, Daniel.”  When Daniel would have protested, he continued to speak.  “I’ve had the other linguists look through your in basket, consulted the teams who brought in the items waiting for you, there is nothing so urgent that it can’t wait another day or even two.  You are to go home and rest today.  Maybe even Wednesday as well.  There’s no need to push yourself.”

“Sir, I don’t want time off,” Daniel said.  “I’ve had enough time away from work in the last weeks.”  He shook his head, trying to figure out how best to express his feelings.  “I don’t want to give in to this crap.  I don’t think I’m ready for another offworld assignment anytime soon.”  Hammond nodded, clearly listening.  “But I really can do the work here, so long as you will let me try.”

“Of course, son, but I do think you need to take today off.  Go home with Jack, get some sleep, eat some sensible meals, read, play a game, something.  Just relax, then come to work on Wednesday.”

Daniel nodded.  “Sir, I spoke to Jack about seeing Dr. Lisle.  I’m not sure what her schedule is like, but --”

“Say no more, you’ll have an appointment on Wednesday.  Block at least an hour into your schedule.”

Biting his lip, Daniel nodded.  He wasn’t looking forward to that meeting, but it was a necessary evil.  “Then I’d guess we’d better call Jack.  I am tired.”  It was an understatement.  He was going to sway when he stood.  He suspected that the only reason Hammond was sending him home was to guarantee that when he woke up, he wouldn’t be so near his office that it would be tempting to go do some work.

Hammond picked up the phone and dialed.  Daniel zoned out while he spoke to Jack, just waiting.  The catharsis of talking about the events of Saturday hadn’t come.  The numbness of exhaustion was still sheathing him, but he had a feeling that when he woke up, rested, the anguish wasn’t going to roll over him, fresh and new.  It helped to know that Hammond didn’t blame him, that he seemed, in fact, to think his reactions were perfectly normal.

A few moments later he heard voices and looked up.  Hammond was speaking to Jack and to Tony.  Daniel gathered his fading strength and smiled at his assistant who walked over.  “How are you, Daniel?” he asked.

Daniel blinked.  “Okay,” he said.  “Ready for bed.  Find out from Hammond when my appointment with Dr. Lisle is on Wednesday, would you?”

“Of course.”

“How deep are my inboxes?”

Tony shrugged, looking uneasy.  “Deep enough,” he said.  “But nothing too urgent.  Nothing that couldn’t wait till Monday, I think.”

“I’ll be in tomorrow,” Daniel said, smiling.  He got to his feet with some effort and only noticed as Tony straightened that the younger man had been prepared to help him up.  “Thanks,” he said.  “I’m fine, though.  Just a little stiff.  It’s fading.”  Tony nodded.  “What are you doing here so late anyway?  I thought you said there was nothing urgent.”  His weariness abated slightly at the thought that there might be something that needed doing.

“There isn’t,” Tony said quickly.  “I just . . . I’ve been worried about you.”

Daniel blinked, not sure what to say to that.  “I’m fine,” he said again.  “Go get some sleep.”

“I will, as soon as I’ve spoken with the general.”

Jack was suddenly at Daniel’s elbow.  “Let’s go home.”

“Okay,” he said, and his body went on auto pilot.  He let Jack lead him to his truck, got inside and fell asleep on the drive home.  Jack roused him and got him up to bed where Daniel fell into the warm embrace of mattress and bedclothes gratefully.

* * *

Tony rose, from habit, at seven-thirty and got himself cleaned up.  Going to his office, he logged into his computer at just past eight.  There he found the fruit of his conversation with Hammond just under four hours ago, an e-mail from the general to the base at large.

 

> Many of you already know that Dr. Daniel Jackson was abducted by Major Nathaniel Grady and an accomplice on Saturday.  Not much is yet known about their precise intentions, but we suspect that Major Grady was an unidentified member of the rogue NID faction that was uncovered by Colonel O’Neill last month, and that this attack was retaliation for the arrest of Colonel Makepeace and the other members of that faction.  I have no doubt that there are rumors spreading around the base about what happened to Dr. Jackson.  Please do not engage in idle speculation.  Put simply, he was tortured, and that’s all you need to know.  Major Grady and his accomplice are in custody awaiting court martial.
> 
> Almost immediately upon his return, Dr. Jackson’s help was needed offworld, so he left on Sunday afternoon to P9X-Y32.  He returned early this morning, mission accomplished, and is taking today off to rest.  He will be returning to work tomorrow morning.
> 
> I know that many of you are very concerned about him and wish to express your friendship and distress on his behalf.  While this desire is understandable, please do not act on it by going to his office to speak with him.  It is his wish to do his work and put the events of Saturday behind him.  Please do not make this harder for him by asking him about them.  If you feel compelled to make some gesture, send him a card or an e-mail.  Otherwise, please try to respect his privacy.
> 
> I know I can count on you all to act with compassion and professionalism.
> 
> General George Hammond

 

Tony nodded.  That was just what he had been hoping for, a low key request to respect Daniel’s space.  Now if only it would work.

As the morning progressed it seemed to have had the hoped for effect.  No one came by for purposes other than business.  Of course, since the e-mail had announced that Daniel wouldn’t be here today, that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

He logged into Daniel’s computer to check to see if there were any e-mails that upped the urgency of the items in the inboxes -- he had to get people to start sending them to him as well -- and saw a large influx of e-mails expressing sympathy and concern.  At least, he assumed that any e-mail whose subject line read “Hope you’re okay” was non-work related.

He glanced at any that looked like they weren’t personal, made a few notes, printed a couple out and put them with the relevant files then turned back to his work.  A pile of files sat on his desk, all of which Greene and Press had been uncertain what to do with.  Two of them were poorly labeled, and he sent those back to records for correction.  The other three were incomprehensible, so he took them to Dr. Rothman to identify.

As he entered the room, Rothman looked up.  “Did you see Daniel last night?” he asked.  “I know you’ve been staying here all the time.”

“I did.”  He was aware suddenly that Balinsky had come in behind him.

“How did he look?”

“Tired,” Tony said.  “I spoke to him briefly, and he was really exhausted.  It’s been a busy few days for him.”

“I’d guess,” Balinsky said.  “Was he visibly injured at all?”

Tony sighed.  “His wrists are thickly bandaged,” he said.  Balinsky looked quietly furious and Rothman just looked sour.  “I guess he was tied up and worked his way free, but . . .”  He shrugged.  “Other than that, he just looked tired.  He went home with Colonel O’Neill last night around four.”

“He shouldn’t come in tomorrow,” Balinsky said.  “He should rest.  We can hold the fort.”

Rothman shook his head.  “When bad things happen to Daniel, he works.  When good things happen to Daniel, he works.  It’s the way he is.”

“He would be better off not thinking about what’s happened,” said a quiet voice from the doorway and they all turned to see Nyan standing there.  “With too much time away from his work, he won’t have anything else to think about.”

“That’s true,” Balinsky said.  “Hey, did you get the message this morning?  I just realized you couldn’t have read it . . . not easily at any rate.”

“Dr. Rothman helped me,” Nyan said, smiling slightly.  “And I have spoken with Teal’c.  He said that Dr. Jackson solved the problem SG-9 was having with no trouble at all.  He said that the prince of the nation we are negotiating with there offered his daughter to Dr. Jackson as a bride.”

Tony’s eyes widened and Balinsky swore.  “I take it he refused?” Rothman asked and Nyan nodded.  “That must have been tricky.  I’m not sure what I’d do if someone offered me a bride.”

Balinsky snorted.  “Turn beet red and stammer, if I know you,” he said.

“Yeah, well, what would you do?” Rothman demanded, stung.

“I have no idea,” Balinsky said.  “I pray I’m never in that situation.”

“And I as well,” Nyan said, “though I shall not be going on offworld assignments.”

“Oh, we might be able to take you along on a dig sometime, once you’ve settled in more,” Rothman said.  “We’ll see.”

Nyan smiled faintly, and Tony felt a stirring of sympathy for the displaced man.  “I should return to my reading practice, so that I will be of use here,” Nyan said.  He withdrew and his footsteps could be heard going down the hall.

Balinsky sighed.  “He’s incredibly shy, I think.  And he hates not having any work he can do.”

“He’s helping,” Rothman said.  “I had him help me translate something yesterday.”

Shrugging, Balinsky said, “It’s hard to settle into a new job anywhere, when you can’t read the language and don’t know the culture, it must be doubly hard.”

“A job is a job,” Rothman replied, his brows knitting.  “Once you know where the bathrooms and break rooms are, what more is there to settling in?”

Balinsky rolled his eyes.  “Only you!” he groused.

“What do you mean?” Rothman asked.

“Oh, nothing . . .”  He shook his head, then turned to Tony.  “So, you think Daniel’s going to be okay?”

“I’m sure of it,” Tony said.  “It may take some time, but Colonel O’Neill certainly seems to think so, and General Hammond.”

“Hammond would shove Daniel through that gate half-naked and sick as a dog if he thought he needed him,” Rothman said sourly.

“That’s not true and you know it,” Balinsky said.

“I don’t know that it’s not true,” Rothman replied.  “Daniel comes back from behind tortured, less than twelve hours later he’s going through the gate to scoop someone’s fat out of the fire.”

“Dr. Jackson insisted on going,” Tony said.  “And he was the only one who could solve the problem.”

“Still . . .”

Tony glanced at Balinsky, who shrugged.  “I don’t agree with you, Robert, but I’m not going to argue with you.”  He stood up.  “I’m going back to work.  I go offworld in two days, and I need to get some things finished first.”

“And I need you to look at these files and determine who they should go to, Dr. Rothman.”  Tony set the files down on his desk.

“I’ll bring them by in an hour or so,” the archeologist said.

“Thanks.”

“Let me know if you hear anything about Daniel,” Rothman said as Tony left.  “Nobody tells me anything.”

They day carried on like that.  At lunch, Tony heard more discussion of Daniel’s prospective native bride than of the weekend’s events, which was probably a good thing.  Major Carter walked into the commissary and was immediately besieged with questions about Dr. Jackson, both regarding his experiences on Saturday and the bride, and Tony watched sympathetically as she got her food and left quickly, presumably heading back to eat in her lab.  Teal’c came in a short time later, but people were considerably more respectful of the Jaffa’s space.

After getting his food, Teal’c came and sat down with Tony, which surprised him a little.  “How are you?” he asked.

“I am fine,” Teal’c replied.  “And you?”

“Good,” Tony said.  “I’m good.”  After that they settled into silence for a while, both of them eating.  Tony found that silence with Teal’c was very comfortable.  He wasn’t a man who needed to be chattering all the time, and neither was the Jaffa.

Eventually, Teal’c looked up from his food and said, “I presume, given your military status, that you have been trained to fight?”

His eyebrows raising, Tony nodded.  “Naturally,” he said.

“Have you kept it up, despite your infirmity?”

“Not so much as I probably should have.  My last posting was a very sedentary job.”

“Then perhaps you would care to train with me,” Teal’c suggested.  “DanielJackson mentioned that you would need at least a minimal grasp of the Goa’uld language in order to do your job well, and we could also practice your speech.”

“That would be great,” Tony said, a little startled.  “Just tell me when you have time available, and I’ll see how it fits into Daniel’s schedule.”

“I will do so,” Teal’c said.

They spoke very little after that, and parted when Tony had finished his meal.  He wondered, as he walked back to his office, if Teal’c’s offer had more to do with a desire to see Daniel surrounded by people who could take on all comers than anything else, but decided it didn’t matter.

He had the same desire just now.


	78. Chapter 78

Jack awoke feeling groggy and as if he’d slept both too little and too long.  The sun was shining brightly through his windows.  He rolled onto his back and stretched, only to discover Daniel in the bed next to him, curled into a fetal ball, facing the other way.  He sat up and looked down at the archeologist, more than a little surprised to find him there.

Jack’s movements must have woken him, because he stretched out and sat up himself.  “Good morning,” Daniel said.  “You slept like crap.”

“I don’t feel like I slept well,” Jack said thoughtfully.  “Why are you in here?”

“I woke up around eight this morning and you were thrashing around in here, so I came in to wake you.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I tried.  I shook your foot.  You didn’t wake up, but after a couple of seconds you calmed down.”  He shrugged.  “I went to the bathroom and when I came out you were back at it again.  I tried to wake you but you were dead to the world, so I sat down on the edge here and tried to figure out what more I dared do to wake you.”  He looked around, flushing slightly.  “And then I woke up.”

“I see.”  Jack was astonished.  He rarely slept so deeply that someone moving around the house wouldn’t wake him.  Of course, he’d had Daniel here for a while, and Sarah getting up to go to the bathroom hadn’t always awakened him, so maybe it wasn’t that surprising.  “Well, are you ready to be awake?”

“I think I’d better be.”  Daniel got up and stretched again.  “I think I actually slept without bad dreams, though, which is a good thing.”  He looked down at the bed and Jack still on it.  “Sorry about that.  I was just so tired.”

“Not a big deal, Daniel,” Jack said.  “Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

“I’ll go get cleaned up,” Daniel said.  He left and a few moments later, Jack heard the shower start up.

Jack got up and found some clothes he could pull on before he showered, just to get some food ready.  He glanced at the clock.  Quarter past two.  He went downstairs and started prepping for omelets.  After a half hour, Daniel turned up looking freshly scrubbed.  Maybe a little too thoroughly scrubbed, but it didn’t look like he’d done himself any real damage so Jack let it go by.  He’d better keep an eye on it, though.  Beneath the cuffs of his long sleeved shirt, white bandages peeked out, the only visible reminder of his ordeal.

“What’s for breakfast?” he asked.

“Omelets,” Jack said cheerfully.  “You want ham or sausage in yours?”

“Sausage,” Daniel said.  He walked over and hitched himself up on the counter, pulling his legs up to sit cross-legged.  “I hope you weren’t upset last night.”

“Upset?” Jack asked.  “About what?”

“About my wanting to talk to General Hammond alone?  I mean, it was nothing against you, I just thought it would --”

Jack reached out and touched Daniel’s foot, which was the nearest part of him.  “Daniel, I’m not upset.  There’s nothing to be upset about.”

“Oh.”  Daniel looked confused.  “I just didn’t want you to think that I was excluding you for any . . . I just . . .”

“There’s no problem, Daniel,” Jack said, pouring egg into the heated frying pan.  “I probably would have interrupted a lot and gotten really angry.  It was probably better this way.”

“That was actually my thought,” Daniel said after a moment.  “And Hammond . . . I’m not sure he could have been as supportive as he was with an audience.”  Jack nodded, wondering just what Daniel meant.  “I mean, I’ve now cried on a general.  I think my humiliation is complete.”

Jack continued cooking and thought about what Daniel had said.  “Did he say anything . . . or do anything that makes you feel that way?”  He had trouble imagining Hammond being anything less than kind under those circumstances, but Daniel might have misinterpreted something.

Daniel shook his head.  “No, he . . . he was fine.  Very fatherly.  I just feel a little odd about it.”

“I guess I can understand that,” Jack said.

“Oh, and I don’t have to testify at court.  The judges have decided that the recordings are evidence enough of the . . . of what happened to me.  And I guess there are e-mails that make it clear that both of them knew I was truly unwilling.”

“That’s great,” Jack said.  “I’m glad to hear it.”

“I can’t tell you how glad I was to hear it.  I had no desire to have some lawyer question me and try to prove that I wanted to be in Grady’s basement, being recorded for sale.”

At that image, violent rage built in Jack’s gut.  In an ordinary criminal court that exact thing would happen, and there wouldn’t have been a damned thing they could do to stop it.  But this wouldn’t be tried in an ordinary criminal court, thank heaven.

“Jack, are you okay?”

Jack blinked and nodded.  “Yeah.  I just . . . I hadn’t thought about that side of your court testimony.  It’s a good thing that won’t happen or I might end up on trial for murder.”  He paused thoughtfully as he handed Daniel his omelet.  “And Teal’c would definitely end up on trial.  Carter, too, probably.”

“I wouldn’t want you guys to get into trouble,” Daniel said.  “Hammond says I won’t ever have to see them again, which suits me fine.”

Jack nodded and started his own omelet.  Silence reigned in the kitchen for a while as Daniel ate and Jack cooked.  It was the comfortable silence of two friends who didn’t feel the need to entertain one another.  There were many things Jack missed about his marriage, but this was one of the biggest.  That sense of comfortable companionship with another person.

After Daniel finished eating, he got up, walked into the living room and came back with a packet.  Jack flipped his omelet onto his plate and turned to find that Daniel had taken over most of the table again with the pictures of the cache on M3T-33H.

“Ah, that again?” Jack said, finding an empty spot on the table to set his plate down.  “We’ll go there as soon as you’re cleared for offworld missions again.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Daniel said.  He leaned eagerly forward.  “Do you see the shadow behind this outcropping?  I think . . . you were there . . . did it seem to go deeper?”

“I’m not sure.”  Jack stood up and peered over Daniel’s shoulder at the picture he indicated.  “I think it went fairly deep, but we didn’t go in at all.”

Daniel produced a magnifying glass and bent down.  “I think there might be more artifacts deeper in.  It’s hard to be certain, but . . .”  After that he kept mumbling, but very little of it made sense to Jack.  Rothman could probably have joined in quite happily, but Jack was content to return to his omelet and eat while watching Daniel babble.

Jack left him enjoying the cache photos and went upstairs to get cleaned up.  When he came back downstairs, he found Daniel, elbows on the table, chin resting in his hands, looking glumly at the photos.  He didn’t look up as Jack came in, but he said, “It’s going to be weeks before Hammond okays me for this, isn’t it?”

“It could be,” Jack agreed.

“And there are frequent storms on that island, right?”

“Yeah,” Jack said.

Daniel heaved a great sigh and turned, eyes serious.  “We need to send someone else to evaluate the cache then, in case it is valuable.”  Jack shook his head, but Daniel wasn’t done.  “Either Robert or Cameron.  We can’t afford to wait for me to be ready.”

“Rothman and Balinsky have full schedules, Daniel.”

“Someone has got to go check this out, Jack,” Daniel said earnestly.  “Or the storms might collapse the --”

“Storms have been wracking that island for centuries since that cache was placed, Daniel, according to what you’ve said.  Another few weeks isn’t going to be that big a deal.”  Jack could not believe how hard Daniel was fighting this.  Didn’t the man recognize a gift when it was offered?

“If that cache is destroyed between now and the time we go to see it, I’ll never forgive myself,” Daniel declared vehemently.

“No,” Jack said reasonably.  “You’ll never forgive me, because it’s not up to you.”

“Jack!”

“Daniel?”  He gave his friend his best bland look and started hoping devoutly that the cache would be in tip top shape when they got to it, because Daniel might just follow up on that.

The archeologist slumped and looked at the photographs.  “You should at least send someone competent to photograph it.”

“What, and hurt Carter’s feelings?” Jack asked.  “Daniel, it’s going to be fine.  Stop worrying about it.”

Daniel nodded, but looked disconsolately at the pictures.  Jack decided that it was time for Daniel to be thinking about something else.  “Come on, let’s go down to the video store.”

 “The video store?”

“Yeah, let’s go find us some stuff to do.”

* * *

Despite the fact that Jack had rented six different DVDs from the video store, as soon as they were in the living room, his eyes seemed to fall on the PS2 that had pride of place.  “Hey, Daniel, we should play a game!” he said enthusiastically.  Daniel was less enthusiastic but willing to be persuaded.  Jack found something and slotted it into the machine.

The third time through the race game, Daniel was finding himself very thankful that cars didn’t have two little joysticks to use for driving.  Or gun turrets, he thought as Jack’s vehicle blew the obstacles ahead of it out of the way.  A little experimentation proved that he could use the guns on his vehicle as well.  Blowing things up was actually kind of fun, in a way.

He smashed through several buildings and got ahead of Jack, still having a little trouble with the steering.  But, apparently, that’s what the guns were for.

Jack came up behind him, went around him quickly and Daniel was suddenly inspired.  Taking aim as best he knew how, he started firing at Jack’s vehicle.  The bright yellow image of an SUV fell to the side as Daniel surged forward and steered his vehicle like a cow across the finish line.

“Holy shit!” Jack exclaimed.  “You shot me!  That is the last thing I would have expected from you, Daniel!”

Daniel blinked.  “Me too.  But it felt good.”

Jack was staring at him, wild-eyed.  “I can’t believe you shot me!”

“It wasn’t you, Jack,” Daniel pointed out.  “It was a bunch of electrons on the screen.”

“It’s the principle of the thing.”

Daniel looked at Jack’s outraged face, and after a couple of moments he started laughing at the intensity of Jack’s reaction.  It took a few minutes more, but Jack started laughing too.  They played again, this time with no holds barred, and Daniel was toast in the first ten seconds.  At which point, the fight was on.

Three hours later there was a knock at the door and Daniel looked up in frustration as Jack paused the game they were now playing, which was a cooperative role-play style game.  They were right in the middle of a challenge, so it was bad timing to say the least.

He turned in his seat and saw Sam coming in with Teal’c behind her.  Forgetting the game and the frustration of the interruption, he got up and went to meet them.

“Daniel!” Sam exclaimed, exactly as if she hadn’t seen him for a week or two and was worried about his health and well-being.  He felt his smile stiffen as he hugged her, and some of the relaxation that had come from the catharsis of blowing things up trickled away.

“So, have you two come for dinner?” Jack asked as Sam pulled away.

“If you wish,” Teal’c said.  “We have come to see DanielJackson, since we were summarily ejected last evening.”

“I wouldn’t say no if you asked, sir,” Sam said, gazing searchingly at Daniel.

Jack seemed to pick up on Daniel’s discomfort and said, “All right, then, you’re going to help.  Carter, you’re in charge of the potatoes and corn.  Teal’c, go get the barbecue started.  Daniel, set the table.  And I’ll get the meat ready.”

They scattered at their commander’s instructions, and Daniel was very thankful.  He wished he could figure out a way to tell Sam that her level of sympathy made him freeze up.

Setting the table took no time, and Jack sent him out with a plate of potatoes and instructions to hand them over to Teal’c.

* * *

“Carter?”

“Yes, colonel?” she said.

“I don’t begin to understand why, but the type of sympathy you offer seems to make Daniel withdraw into himself.”  She gave him a stricken look, and he thumped his hand down on the hunk of meat he was rubbing with seasoning.  “Damn it, I’m not saying you’re doing anything wrong, it’s just that your sympathy and Daniel’s unhappiness don’t seem to mix well.  I don’t know why.”  Her expression hadn’t eased any.  “When you offer sympathy to me it works out just fine.”

Her brows lowered.  “Well, you’re not getting any now,” she growled and started wrapping the corn tightly in aluminum foil.  Her movements were a little too sharp, though, and she tore the foil.

Jack rolled his eyes.  “This is not coming out right!” he muttered.  “Okay, look at it this way, when you look worried, Daniel feels broken.  He likes people to pretend that everything’s fine.”

“But it’s not, sir,” she said, looking perplexed.

Jack stared at her for a moment, and then said, “That’s why I used the word ‘pretend,’ Carter.”  He shook his head.  “Daniel needs us to treat him as if things were normal so he can act normally.”

She took a deep breath and turned to face him, crossing her arms.  “But he also needs to know that we’re here, that we know what he’s been through, and that we sympathize.”

“Daniel doesn’t want sympathy.  He wants normalcy.  That’s a word, right?”  Carter nodded a shade impatiently.  “Normalcy.  He knows we’re here for him.  He knows we know.  He knows we sympathize, he doesn’t need that demonstrated.  We’ve done that already, just by being his friends.  Now we need to support him in the way he needs to be supported.  By behaving as if nothing’s wrong unless he makes the first move.”

“But sir, there’s a half dozen things that might set off a problem for him.  We can’t just ignore that.”

“No, but that’s not quite the same thing.  Be aware, but don’t make him aware that you’re aware.”

She looked at him for a moment, blinking thoughtfully, then she nodded.  “I think I see what you mean.”

“Good.  Now get those ears rolled and bring them out so we can roast them.”

Leaving her to her task, he took the meat out to the barbecue.  Daniel was sitting down, talking to Teal’c, and the potatoes were neatly disposed around the grill.  Jack turned them then put the meat down in between them.

Carter came out a few minutes later and said, “Who’s playing the video game?” she asked.

“We both were,” Jack called back.  “I’m a British explorer and Daniel’s a buxom Amazon queen who’s trying to seduce me.”

“Really?” Carter asked, raising her eyebrows and glancing over at Daniel.  She sounded amused.

“In his dreams,” Daniel said, grinning.  “The Amazon queen is just using the British explorer to secure her power base, then she’ll sacrifice him to her gods.”  Daniel paused.  “After seducing him,” he added after a moment’s thought.  “To tie him to her people so the sacrifice will have more meaning.”

Jack turned an appalled look on Daniel, then looked at Carter who appeared to be stifling giggles.  “Never role-play with an archeologist,” he said.  “They’re just warped.”

“Actually, Jack, that comes more under the anthropologist hat,” Daniel said.

“Whatever,” Jack replied.

Dinner was a peaceful meal, and Daniel seemed to relax as they ate.  After dinner, they kicked back and watched the first two Lethal Weapon movies.  Daniel had never seen them, but to Jack’s surprise, Teal’c had.  On cable.

After the first one, Daniel said, “I don’t get that,” he said.  “Why did he want to commit suicide?  It doesn’t fix anything.”

“No, but it stops things,” Jack said, remembering a time when that had seemed a good option to him.  “Ow!”  Jack turned and glared at Carter who had kicked him hard.  “Hey!  No assaulting a superior officer!”

“What kind of logic is that?” she demanded, ignoring his objection.

“It is the truth,” Teal’c said.  “It does stop things.”

“But not the right things,” Daniel protested.

Jack shook his head.  “It stops everything,” he said.

“Not the bad guys,” Daniel replied.

“It stops them for you,” Jack said.

“Well, what good does that do for anyone else?” Daniel growled.

“I didn’t say it did!” Jack exclaimed.  “I’m not advocating here, I’m just explaining.”

“It still doesn’t make any sense to me,” Daniel complained.

Jack leaned forward and squeezed Daniel’s shoulder.  “You go with that,” he said, then flipped the DVD changer to the next movie.

When they’d finished watching the second movie, Carter looked over at Jack.  “Do you have the third one, sir?” she asked.  “The one with Rene Russo?”

Jack glanced at the clock.  “I do, but it’s past eleven.  I think it’s time for bed.”

“Yup,” Daniel said, standing up and yawning.  “Much as I hate to admit it, I’m tired.  But if you guys want to stick around, it’s no big deal to me.”

“Or you could all come back tomorrow night and we could watch the other two movies,” Jack suggested.

“That would be great,” Carter said.

Daniel smiled.  “Sounds good.  I’m going to bed.  Good night, guys.”  He gave Carter a quick hug, squeezed Teal’c’s shoulder and went upstairs, leaving Jack to do the host thing.  He saw Carter and Teal’c to the door.  As Carter started down towards her car, Teal’c held back for a moment.  “Is he as well as he seems?  Or is he putting on a good show?”

Jack pursed his lips, glancing toward the stairs.  “I don’t honestly know, T,” he replied.  “I think it’s at least partly a good show, but talking to Hammond last night seems to have done him some good.”

“I am glad to hear that, O’Neill.”  The Jaffa bowed slightly and left.  Jack shut and locked the door, did the quick run around the lower floor to make sure everything was locked up tight.

He stopped by Daniel’s room to find the archeologist sitting on the bed watching for him.  He was wearing the loose sweats he habitually slept in, and his legs were crossed.  Jack stopped in the doorway.  “What’s up?”

Daniel shrugged and didn’t speak.  Jack walked into the room and sat down on the bed beside him.  He didn’t say anything either, so they sat there for a while, silently.  Finally, Daniel sighed.  “I don’t know how I’m going to get to sleep,” he said.  “I don’t want to dream.”

“I could try that whole reading you a bedtime story thing we talked about once,” Jack said.

“Yeah, right, Jack.  Like that’s going to help.”

“It could help you get to sleep,” Jack pointed out.

“But it wouldn’t help me not dream.”

“I don’t know what I can do for you there, Daniel.”

“I know.”  Daniel sighed again.  “I was going to try meditation.”

“Is there a reason you’re not?”

“Well, for one thing, you’re sitting here talking to me,” Daniel said with a sly grin that took all possible sting out of the remark.  “And because I’m not sure I have the ability to concentrate that deeply.”  He gave Jack a sidelong look.  “Of course, I know something that would help me go to sleep.”

Jack opened his mouth to ask what, then caught on.  “No, Daniel.  It’s really not a good idea.”

“A stiff drink puts me out like a light, Jack,” Daniel said.  “I’m in no danger of abusing it, really.”

“If Harry okays it, we’ll see, but not till then.  Now, meditation.  You said you weren’t sure you could concentrate deeply enough.”

Daniel opened his mouth as if to argue, but then seemed to change his mind.  “Right,” he said.

Jack shrugged.  “You’ll never know unless you try.”  He stood up.  “I’m going to go get ready for bed.  I’ll be back by to check on you.”

Daniel nodded and Jack left the room.  He didn’t have much hard liquor in the house, and Daniel wasn’t the sort to go sneaking around, so he wasn’t worried.  On the other hand, he hadn’t expected Daniel to hide brandy in his luggage.  He went downstairs and looked at the bottles he had and thought about dumping them.  Then he decided that he was going to trust Daniel.  He went up to his room and got changed for bed, then went to check on his friend.

The archeologist was limp on the bed, on top of the covers.  Jack went and got a blanket to cover him with.  Leaving the door ajar, he went to bed himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that this was written both in and about a time when Blockbuster and Hollywood video rental stores still existed as buildings where you went and browsed for DVDs, and well before streaming was a thing. God, I feel old. :)


	79. Chapter 79

Daniel awoke sharply out of a wretched dream that featured both Glen and Grady, one that he would as soon forget immediately if he could.  He heard sounds coming from down the hall and got up.  Jack was thrashing again, and muttering.  It was nothing Daniel could make out, but he sounded alternately angry and pleading.

“Jack?” he said softly, touching the man’s foot.  He backed up quickly when Jack kicked.  “Jack?” he called a little louder.  He’d been a punching bag for an out of control Jack in the past, and he didn’t want to repeat the experience.

“No!” Jack said suddenly, very loudly and clearly, and after all the incomprehensible muttering it was almost as if he’d shouted.  His body went still.  “God, no!  Leave him alone!”

Daniel leaned forward, still staying back a bit.  “Jack, wake up!”

Jack sat up suddenly and stared around him.  His breath, which had been coming in sharp gasps, slowly returned to normal.  Daniel went to the bathroom and got a cold washcloth, because Jack’s face was covered in sweat.

He walked back into the bedroom and handed Jack the damp cloth, and he stared at it for a moment, as if not sure what to do with it.  “Jack, you okay?”  Jack shook his head and didn’t speak.  “You were dreaming.  I’m guessing it was one of those troubling dreams.”

Jack nodded.  “Oh yeah,” he said.  “Sorry, just give me a minute.”

Daniel sat down on the end of the bed as Jack shook the washcloth out and wiped his face down with it.  His own gut was still knotted up from the stress of his own dream.  He waited patiently for Jack to find himself able to speak.  Finally Jack took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“God, that was awful,” he said, shaking his head.  “You okay?  What woke you?”

“Not sure.  I was in a pretty rotten dream myself, though, so I’m just as glad.”  He waited a moment, but when Jack didn’t speak, he said, “What was your dream?”

“Let’s not mince words.  That was a nightmare, full blown and large as life,” Jack said.

“Okay,” Daniel said.  “What was it?”

Jack reached out towards him and pulled him into a tight hug.  Daniel returned the embrace, wondering what the hell Jack’s nightmare had been about.  “God, Daniel,” he said.

Daniel squeezed and pulled gently away.  “Jack, what is it?” he asked worriedly.

“Just . . . you remember what I told you about being in prison?”  Daniel nodded.  “In my dream I . . . you were there and they . . . they . . .”  Jack squeezed his eyes shut.  “I don’t want to talk about the details.”

“Right.”  Daniel didn’t think he wanted to hear about the details, at least not right now.  “It was only a dream.  I wasn’t there, it didn’t happen.”

“It was so damned vivid.”  Jack buried his face in his hands.  “Then you started calling my name, and there was nothing I could do.”

Daniel put an arm around Jack’s shoulders.  “It’s okay, Jack.  It’s okay.”

“What was your nightmare?”

“Oh, nothing.  Just Grady and Glen.”

“That’s not nothing,” Jack said.

“It wasn’t tremor and sweat inducing,” Daniel replied.  “In tonight’s nightmare competition, you win, hands down.”

“Is there a competition on?” Jack asked, wryly.

“Jack, what happened to me wasn’t your fault.  That you couldn’t stop it from the moment you knew what was happening wasn’t your fault.”

“I know that intellectually, Daniel, but it’s going to take a while for my gut to get it.”

Daniel grinned.  “And here I thought your head was dense.”

Jack laughed.  “Thanks, Dannyboy, I’ll remember that.”

“So, you never did tell me.  How did you figure out that there was a problem?  Was it just that I wasn’t where I said I’d be?  Was it the e-mail?”

Jack shook his head.  “Those, but the conversation you had with Grady on Friday night was caught on tape.”

“It was?” Daniel said, knitting his brows.

“The voice activated tape recorder you have in your office for notes,” Jack explained.  “It got the whole thing.”

Daniel blinked.  “I forgot it was even there,” he said.

“I figured as much,” Jack replied.  “We listened to that, and I’d been getting some bad feelings about Grady, completely the wrong angle, but still, I thought it would be good to check him out.  I grabbed Carter and Teal’c to go out to his house.  When Teal’c was getting dressed, he checked Grady’s locker and found a packet of photos.”

Daniel felt his stomach grow very cold.  “Photos?”

Jack nodded.  “Photos of you.  He . . . he’d been stalking you for some time, I’d guess.”

“No!” Daniel said in instant denial.  “Tell me you’re kidding,” he begged.

“About this?” Jack replied.  “Sorry, space monkey.”  Daniel bit his lip.  “The stalking angle really worried us, so we headed straight to his house.  We searched the place, but you weren’t there, so Carter started looking on his computer and found the e-mails.  I guess the first one she found was the . . . um . . .”

“What, Jack?”  Daniel was staring intently at the other man’s face, but Jack wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“The advertising trailer for the first movie,” Jack said after a long moment.  “She showed it to Teal’c and me.”

Daniel closed his eyes and felt his body trembling.  “If they sold a bunch of copies of that movie, how many more copies of that trailer did they send out?”

Jack took in a sharp breath and then said, “I don’t know.  I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

Daniel shuddered.  “I hate thinking about it.  I want to reach into the minds of everyone who’s seen it and yank the memory out.”

“I know.  I wish you could.”  Jack sighed.  “So Carter kept looking on his computer and she found live feed.”

“Sam saw it?” Daniel said.  He’d known she’d have to have, but he had managed not to think about it thus far.

Jack nodded.  “I’ll give you the list in the morning if you still want it.  There are a fair number of people who saw it, Daniel.  We had to keep an eye on it to --”

“Don’t!”  Daniel shook his head.  “I understand why it was necessary, and I don’t want to talk about it.  I need to know who, though, so I don’t wonder who.  I don’t need to be analyzing every look anyone gives me to decide whether it means they’ve seen me . . . seen me . . .”  He forced himself to stop speaking, taking several deep breaths.  “You see what I mean?”

“I do,” Jack said.  “But no one who saw it is going to judge you for it.”

Daniel shook his head.  “Don’t be naive, Jack.  Subconscious judgments happen, and there’s often no realistic way to combat them.  And if there’s anyone on that list that doesn’t know me, or doesn’t know me well, I’ll be forever branded in their minds as ‘that guy who got raped’ with whatever value judgments their minds attach to that fact.”

Jack took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.  No surprise there, Daniel thought.  There wasn’t a good answer to the problem.  Jack shook his head.  “Daniel, there isn’t a man or woman on this base who doesn’t think first of your accomplishments.  I genuinely don’t believe that you will be forever labeled in anyone’s mind as ‘that guy who got raped.’”  When Daniel opened his mouth to refute the claim, Jack gave him a peremptory look, silencing him, and went on.  “And, before you say anything, no, the images aren’t going to fade real easily.  Images of horrific events never do, and probably shouldn’t.”

Daniel’s eyes dropped.  “Horrific events aren’t something I particularly want to be associated with in people’s minds either, but that seems to be my lot in life.”

“Daniel --” Jack started, sounding exasperated.

“Jack, how many men do you know who can say that they’ve gotten to watch their entire family die by violence?  Outside of a war zone, I mean.”

“Daniel . . .”  He could tell that Jack was upset.

“I know, I’m pathetic, but --”

Jack sat up straight at this and shrugged Daniel’s arm off.  Turning, he took Daniel firmly by the shoulders.  “You are not pathetic.  There is nothing pathetic about a man who has had the life you’ve had and who keeps on going.”  Daniel shook his head and Jack gave his shoulders a gentle shake.  “I’m serious, Daniel.”

“Well, you’re awake now,” Daniel said, pulling away and standing up.  “And the dream is over.  Do you think you can go back to sleep?”

Jack looked up at him.  “You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“That thing you said you don’t do.  Withdrawing when someone gives you a compliment.”

“Was there a compliment?  I withstand tragedy well?  Is that a compliment?”

Jack shrugged.  “You withstand it better than I do.”  Daniel’s brows knit.  “I mean, I was ready to blow up a whole people, if you’ll recall.”

“That wasn’t because of your tragedy,” Daniel said, looking at him skeptically.

Jack raised his eyebrows.  “Don’t kid yourself,” he said.

“I thought it was devotion to duty.”

“When I’m not suicidal, my devotion to duty doesn’t usually extend to nuking five thousand innocent people.”

Daniel sank down to the bed again.  “Fine, so I handle tragedy well.  Maybe that’s just because started early.  If so, it’s not a skill I recommend acquiring.”

“No kidding, Daniel.  My point is, you stand up again, no matter how many times life knocks you down.”  Jack grabbed his shoulder as he started to turn away.  “Listen to me.  I admire you for that.  It’s not something I see in myself.”

Some of what Jack was saying to him sank in, but he shook his head.  “I think you sell yourself short, Jack,” Daniel said.

“Thank you, Daniel,” Jack said.  “Now, I’ve modeled the correct way to take a compliment.  You should try it sometime.”

Rolling his eyes, Daniel gave him a scowl.  “Well, so long as we’re exchanging compliments, you’re a good friend.”

Jack looked as if he’d been ready for anything but a genuine compliment.  He blinked a couple of times, and then grinned.  “Thanks,” he said.  “You’re not so bad yourself.”

Daniel shook his head.  “I’m going back to bed,” he said and got up.  “Sleep well.  No more nightmares allowed.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Daniel,” Jack said, a hint of amusement tingeing his voice.  Grinning, Daniel left and went back to his own room.

* * *

On the way to the base the next morning, Jack cleared his throat and Daniel looked over at him expectantly.  “Hammond sent out an e-mail yesterday,” he said after a moment.

“An e-mail?”

“Yeah, letting people know you’d be back today and that you wanted to get back to work.  He asked people to limit their expressions of concern to e-mails and cards, so you shouldn’t be interrupted too much today.  If people start pestering you, let me or Tony know.”

Daniel looked down at his hands, pulling self consciously at his cuffs to cover up the bandages on his wrists.  “I always feel bad about that, Jack.  They’re just expressing concern --”

“That’s not the point, Daniel.  If they’re not helping you, then you don’t need them there.  Let me hurt their feelings if that’s the problem.  I have no compunctions about it.”

 Daniel shook his head.  “I don’t want people being upset,” he said.  He couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t just leave him alone.  All those people asking him if he was all right, if he wanted to talk about things . . . he really didn’t, but he didn’t want to have to tell them so.  But they were just being friendly.  It wasn’t right to push them away.

“Okay, Daniel, I’ll be nice.”

And now Jack was humoring him.  Daniel sighed.  It was going to be a hell of a day, especially since he had to meet with Dr. Lisle.  The thought of that appointment made his stomach curdle, and he remembered something abruptly.  “Jack, I need to go by my house.”

“Sure, Daniel,” he said.  “What’s up?”

“That file I need for Dr. Lisle, it’s in my safe.”

“No problem,” Jack said, swinging a u-turn and heading back towards Daniel’s apartment.  They got to the base a little later than usual, but by no means late.  Bidding Jack good bye, Daniel kept a firm grip on his file and went down to his office where he tucked it in a drawer.

Tony came in behind him.  “Good morning,” he said.  Daniel smiled.  “We’ve tried to get your inboxes in order, but I don’t know how good a job we’ve done.”

“I’m sure you did great,” Daniel said, staring at his desk.  “The desk is still there under all that, right?”

Tony laughed.  “Unless someone sneaked in and stole it, it should be.”

Daniel walked over to the mound of chocolate bars and bags of gourmet coffee and started sorting them into stacks.  “Can you find me a box or a crate or something?” he asked.  Smiling, Tony held out a file crate and Daniel began piling things into it.

“I thought you should see the full effect,” Tony said.

“How many e-mails are there?” he asked, looking in dismay at the cards.

“Quite a few,” Tony replied, his face growing more serious as he registered Daniel’s reaction.  “I can move them to another folder or something, so you can look at them later, if you want.”

“That would be great,” Daniel said.  “But first, if you could just find me a large manila envelope so I can take these home to look at, I’d appreciate it.”

“No problem, Daniel,” Tony said.  He left and Daniel started gathering up the cards, noting the handwriting on each.  He didn’t recognize most of it, but most of the people on base communicated through e-mails.

Tony came back in with an envelope.  “Sir, your appointment is in three hours.  Eleven o’clock.”

“Thanks,” he said.  Taking the envelope from Tony, he stuffed the cards inside, then tucked that away in his briefcase, which sat empty on the floor beside his desk.

Then he gathered up the files and texts and research materials related to the physics text.  Interesting as it was, he had to look through his inbox to make sure there wasn’t something earth shattering.  Besides, he’d really have to get Sam involved in that one, he thought.  Once that was squared away, he looked around.  Tony was sitting down at his computer, and Daniel suspected that he wouldn’t want to look over there for a fair amount of time until Tony was done culling through the e-mails.  Instead he walked over and picked up his urgent in basket and took it to his desk to start sorting through it, shifted the order of priorities slightly based on the personalities of the men writing the ‘urgent’ notes, then turned to his other inbox.

It was nice, for once, not to have to spend an hour working out who got what.  There was one file in his regular inbox that should have gone to Rothman, and instead of having to take it himself, he found a sticky, marked it, and put it by the door for Tony.  Pulling his watch out of his breast pocket, he put it on his desk where he could see it.  Then he settled down with the most important of his urgent files and a chocolate bar that was labeled as having come from Lou Feretti and set to work.

About an hour later according to his watch, his time sense was never good when he was working, Jack came in.  When Daniel turned, he shook his head.  “Don’t mind me, I’m just here to raid the candy.”

“Go for it,” Daniel said.  “It would take me months to work my way through all that.”

“Try weeks,” Jack replied, raising his eyebrows.  “I’ve seen you on a chocolate binge.  Hey, Smarties!  Someone obviously knew I’d be coming.”

Daniel rolled his eyes and got back to work.


	80. Chapter 80

Jack had checked through his e-mail and there was startlingly little disciplinary work for him.  Hammond had arranged for someone else to deal with his routine paperwork just this once, no doubt because he was looking after Daniel.  All he had to do right now was write a few reports and prep a final seminar for his newbies.

But he had one personal visit he wanted to make.  He trotted along to the holding cells and admitted himself to Grady’s, first peering in through the window.

The man was sitting on the bed, reading a book.  When the door opened he looked up, then jumped to his feet, narrowly missing hitting his head on the upper bunk of the bed.  “Sir!” he exclaimed, saluting.

Jack didn’t return the salute, and they stood there, as the door shut behind him with a clang, in a tense, silent tableau until Grady, shrugging uncomfortably, dropped the salute.  Jack still didn’t say anything.  He was looking at Grady, the man who had videotaped his assault on one of the most important, certainly one of the most intelligent men on the planet, and wondering what the hell made his mind tick.

Grady stood uneasily, clearly aware that he should not be the one to speak first.  The silence lengthened uncomfortably, until Jack crossed his arms and leaned against the door.  “Why?” he asked.  “None of this crap I’ve heard on the tapes about how it was for Daniel.  That’s self-serving bullshit if I ever heard it.”

“But . . .”

“Ahh!” Jack said sharply, cutting him off.  “You saw something you wanted to see in him.  Something you so desperately wanted to see that you searched out reasons to see it.  I don’t want to hear that crap.  That’s not why.”

Grady shook his head.  “He needs this,” he said.  “Daniel needs a safe --”

“Is that what you saw first?” Jack asked, his voice going very quiet.  Grady was perceptive enough that he picked up on the danger sign and fell silent for a long moment.

Finally, he took a deep breath and said, “No.”

“So, let’s back up a little.  Why?”  Grady didn’t say anything.  His eyes dropped from Jack’s.  “And what were you thinking, to take the top civilian consultant on base out of communication?  Do you realize what a dangerous situation that was?”

Grady’s eyes widened angrily.  “For whom?  Not for Daniel.  You don’t give a damn about Daniel!  You’re constantly putting him in danger, not protecting him sufficiently, allowing him to --”  With evident effort he cut himself off.

Jack looked at him through narrow eyes.  “You really believe your own bullshit, don’t you?” he asked.

“It’s not bullshit,” Grady protested.  “Your inability to recognize the truth doesn’t make it any less true.”

“That Daniel has a need for sexual danger.”

“You shouldn’t have watched that!” Grady growled.

“Why not?  You were selling it on the internet!”

“That’s not the point.  You don’t understand.”

“You’re right, I don’t understand you.  You’re as deluded as Daniel thought you were.”  He shook his head.  “You seem to think you care about him.”

“I do,” Grady said.  “I . . . I love him.”

Jack’s eyebrows climbed.  “You love him.”  He had to restrain the desire to strangle the bastard then and there.  “You love . . . quite apart from the fact that you misinterpreted his emotional needs, do you have any idea what knowing that there are people out there watching what happened to him is doing to him?  This man you ‘love’ has become physically ill, more than once, as a result of something you did for monetary gain.”

Grady actually looked worried.  “He has?  Is he okay?”  Jack’s hands flexed and clenched.  How dared he act like he really did care?  Then Grady shook his head.  “He would have gotten used to it, gotten to like it.  Look how he always draws attention to himself.  He likes people watching him.  He likes being the center of attention.  He just didn’t have time to adjust.”

Jack glowered.  “So, basically you saw a pretty face, a good body and a pleasant personality and didn’t bother to get to know him any more closely.”

“That’s not true!  Just because you don’t see what I see --”

“It means that I’ve actually spent time with him, talked to him, gotten to know him.”  Jack shook his head in disgust.  “If you hadn’t found Daniel’s misfortunes in his files, I’m sure you would have come up with some other excuse.”

“If it hadn’t been obvious that he needed the kind of help I could give him, I wouldn’t have approached him at all.  He’s beautiful and brilliant, and so vulnerable.”

And Jack wouldn’t be sharing the contents of this conversation with Daniel if he could help it.  “Well, the fact that you didn’t ‘approach’ him so much as abduct him suggests to me that you knew your suit wouldn’t be accepted.”

“A lot of people have difficulty accepting what they need, colonel,” Grady said.  “It takes a session or two to bring them to a full understanding of their deepest desires.  Daniel was still too caught up in the sexual norms of our culture, but he would have come round.”

“That’s not how it works, major,” Jack growled.  “I may not be into that sort of thing, but I know that much.  If someone isn’t ready to accept it, then they aren’t ready, period.  You don’t force it.”

“How would you --”

Jack took a step closer.  “I know.  I know people, I ask questions, I do research.  Probably most of the people you and Glen sold that video to would be disgusted, nauseated, by the thought that the man they were watching was genuinely unwilling.”

“He just doesn’t recognize the true nature of his desires.  Maybe I’m not the one for him, but someone has to give him what he needs, or he’ll continue endangering himself and the rest of your team, seeking it.”

Jack took another step closer, and despite the fact that Grady was six or so years younger and two inches taller, he looked intimidated by the aura Jack was producing.  “Hear this, Daniel doesn’t endanger my team in the way you’re implying.  That is a particularly nasty insinuation, and it’s false, through and through.  How dare you suggest that Daniel goes out of his way to get into dangerous situations for his own gratification?  You aren’t fit to judge him.  You aren’t fit to be in the same room with him!”

Grady’s eyes narrowed as Jack spoke, and he said, “That’s it.  You’re jealous.  You’ve never had the courage to --”

“To attack him?” Jack demanded.  “You gratified yourself with his body regardless of his wishes or desires, and now you’re trying to say it’s his fault and that I wish I’d done it first?”

“Sir?” called a voice from behind him, and Jack realized that his hands were fisted and he was looming at Grady.  The guards must have heard their raised voices, for the door was open and one of them had stepped inside.

He took a couple of steps back.  “You’re not worth it,” he snarled at Grady.  “I hope they hang you out to dry.”  He turned around and left the cell, hearing the door clang shut behind him with pleasure.

He could probably expect an annoyed interview with Hammond later, but he could live with that.  He’d needed to hear some of that from Grady himself, and he couldn’t count on the lawyers to ask the right questions.

He glanced in at Glen who was sitting still, doing nothing, and went back to his office.  He had a report to write.

* * *

Tony cleared his throat politely in the doorway and Daniel looked up.  Time for his appointment then.  He stood up, grabbed his watch, the file from his desk and a book, and went to the room he’d been directed to.  This didn’t appeal overwhelmingly.

Nerving himself up, he knocked.  “Come in!”  He walked in the door and stopped briefly.  Jack had said she reminded him of Catherine, but he hadn’t actually mentioned her age.  Daniel walked in and shut the door, bemused by the impression that he was dealing with someone’s grandmother.  “Good morning, Dr. Jackson, I’m Dr. Lisle.”

“Hi,” Daniel said, shifting his feet uneasily as he continued to stand by the door.  The office was pleasant.  She’d hung pictures on the concrete walls, and one of the walls was draped with some kind of blue fabric.  Her desk had half a dozen photos on it of people of varying ages.

Her eyebrows raised as he hovered, and she said, “Boy, you’ve had some really bad shrinks, haven’t you?”

He blinked, a little startled by this assessment.  He swallowed with difficulty because his mouth had gone dry.  Biting his lips, he gestured with his file.  “Want to read about it?” he asked.

She nodded and held out her hands.  He walked over and gave it to her.  She put it down on her desk and flipped it open.  “I wish you’d given me this yesterday.”

“I wasn’t here yesterday,” he said, gulping.  That file hadn’t been opened in ten years at least.  “And I didn’t want to let it out of my sight.”

She gazed at him for a moment.  “Really bad shrinks,” she repeated finally.  “Have a seat.  I presume you want me to read through this?”

“I --”  He sat down and looked down at his hands, tugging at his cuffs again before he realized what he was doing and pushed the sleeves up.  He wasn’t going to hide the bandages, they weren’t a mark of shame.  “There are things you should know in there, but I’m really not ready to talk about them.”  She raised her eyebrows.  “It’s just for background.  I don’t want to get into those things, but I felt like it would be asking you to operate blind, not telling you.”

“I appreciate that,” she said.  “But this is a pretty thick file.  It’s going to take me time to read it.  Are you sure you couldn’t just tell me the basics?”

Daniel pondered that for a moment, then shook his head.  “I haven’t ever been able to talk about it real well,” he said.  “I can wait,” he added, waving the book.

She nodded slowly, then lowered her head to the file.  Daniel started reading, but it wasn’t very effective.  He couldn’t concentrate.  After several minutes he slammed the book shut and she looked up, eyebrows raised mildly.  “My parents died in an accident in front of me when I was eight years old.  My only family, my grandfather, refused custody of me, which put me into the foster care system.  Not all of my foster parents were very nice, not all of my foster siblings were very nice, and I bounced from home to home for a lot of years, till I was emancipated at sixteen, took the GED and went to college.”  He gestured at the file.  “The last shrink in there is from my emancipation hearings.  She was the sanest of all of them, but even she thought I needed long term therapy.”

“I see.  Well, that is the basics,” she said, smiling and shutting the file.  “Can I keep this if I promise on my honor not to share its contents with anyone or make copies?”

He bit his lip uneasily.  It was something he found very difficult to contemplate.  “I suppose,” he said.  “Jack trusts you.”

“And if Jack trusts someone that means you can?”

Daniel shrugged.  “I trust Jack.”

“Very good.”  She opened a drawer and put the file in it.  “So, why don’t you want to talk about what’s contained in the file?” she asked.

“Because it’s ancient history,” Daniel said.  “I’m thirty-three years old, and the data in that file is seventeen years out of date.”

“But you thought it was important that I see it?”

“The events in there have something to do with shaping my personality,” Daniel said.  “The past is prologue.  It’s part of who I am, however much I might try to ignore or deny it.”

“Do you ignore it?”

“It’s over with.  There’s nothing I can do about it.  What’s the point in dwelling on it?”

She smiled.  “There’s no point in dwelling on it, that’s the truth.”  She paused.  “I’d like to propose something to you.”

“What?” he asked suspiciously.

“I will read through that file, and if I find anything that I think should be discussed, I will tell you what it is and you can tell me whether you’re willing to talk about it.”

“And if I say no?”

“Then I will read through it and regard it as prologue.  But if we talk about it, I will also give you my opinion of what your previous shrinks have said and done.”

He contemplated this.  There were . . . but he . . . he shook his head.  “No.  I’m . . . not saying never.  But not now.  I’m not ready.”

“Very well,” she said.  “I will read it later then.  Let’s talk about the more recent events.”

Daniel took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “What do you know?  Have you seen . . .”

She nodded and Daniel closed his eyes.  This incisive grandmother had seen him in such dreadful straits that . . . he hadn’t even seen . . . he had no idea what . . .

A hand on his shoulder made him stiffen.  He looked up to find her standing next to his chair.  “It’s all right, Dr. Jackson.”

“No, it’s not.  I hate that so many people have seen that.  Every humiliating moment of . . .”  He shook his head.  “Every time I think about someone seeing that it makes my stomach clench up and I feel sick.”

“That seems perfectly natural,” she said.  She’d pulled up her chair next to him.

“Yeah.”

“Have you seen any of it?”

He shook his head.  “I saw what some of it must have looked like in a mirror, but no, I didn’t see any of it.”

She nodded and paused thoughtfully.  “I can think of any number of things that would be disturbing about knowing that other people have witnessed what happened to you.  Can you tell me what bothers you the most?”

Daniel considered the question.  “I don’t think I can separate it out, honestly, Dr. Lisle.  It’s all of a piece for me, I think.”  He thought about the list that he’d been given that morning.  “You, Jack, Sam, Tony, Siler, Hammond, a few others I don’t know well, you’ve all seen me being raped.  Responding to being raped.  Begging not to be raped.”  He shook his head.  “I’m exposed to all of you, my reactions, the degradations he put me through, the acts I participated in to get him . . .”  His voice broke.

“Nothing that happened in that basement was your fault,” she said.

“I know that.”

She smiled.  “Yes, but it bears repeating.”

He snorted.  “I don’t know what you’ve seen,” he said.  “I don’t know what it looks like, whether I look willing or like I’m not fighting hard enough.  And those movies . . . there are movies out there that show me, face visible, and I don’t know who has them or what they’re going to do about them.”

“That last we can find out about.  I’m sure the fact that you haven’t been told is merely an oversight on someone’s part.”

Daniel nodded.  “Or someone just isn’t sure how to broach the subject with me,” he said.  She nodded as if agreeing with that possibility.

“About the other, I can tell you that it’s patently obvious in the sections I’ve seen that you’re unwilling to be where you are.  You say it outright more than once, and Grady acknowledges that he recognizes that you are not playing a part.  Further, I have some knowledge of the sexual culture that Grady was purporting to be introducing you to, and most of the key elements were not present.”

Daniel bit his lip.  He had some knowledge himself, but he wanted to hear what she had to say.  She might have different information, or a different take.  “Go on.”

“First, informed consent.  Participants in those sorts of activities may engage in ‘abduction’ fantasies, but there’s always discussion in advance.  The abductee may not know the exact time of the event, but they will know it’s coming.”

Daniel nodded.  “That jibes with my understanding.”

“Second, the acceptance that no means no.  A different word is often substituted to allow the game to have a bit of reality to it, but once that safe word is spoken, the game ends, period.”

“Right.”

“Third, there is a sense that runs throughout the literature that the submissive in a ‘scene’ like that one is really in charge.  The dominant partner is supposed to remain aware of the submissive partner’s reactions and adjust his behavior accordingly.  Grady was at no point responsive to your reactions, except to turn the pressure up.”

“God, it was awful,” Daniel muttered.  “He wouldn’t let up.”

She waited for a moment to see if he had anything more to say, then went on.  “Fourth, promises made are kept.  Period.  The business with the blindfold is an excellent example of his disregard for that.  Not only did he change the rules midstream, but he forgot to follow through.”

“I remember.”  Daniel was sinking down his chair, recalling the panic he’d felt at being blindfolded.

She took his hand and he looked up in surprise.  “There’s no shame in anything you did, any reaction you had, Dr. Jackson.  He put you in the most vulnerable possible position and gave you very few options for response.”

Daniel closed his eyes.  “Why did he think that?  Did I do something that made him think I’d welcome that kind of thing?”

She squeezed his hand.  “If it hadn’t been you, it would have been someone else.  Someone like this will find excuses to seek what he wants.  And don’t forget, you weren’t the first.  He’s done this to other people.”

Daniel nodded.  “Just none of them had the resources I do.”  He sighed.  “I would have reported him.  If he’d let me go on Sunday evening, I would have gone home to Jack’s house and told him immediately, recordings be damned.  I don’t think Grady believed that at any point.  He even tried to get me to play along right there at the end, with Jack standing there.”

“I believe you,” she said, and Daniel looked up at her with gratitude, surprised by this unqualified response.

“I suspect that’s what was holding me together, the thought that he wasn’t going to get away with it this time.”

“Are you angry with his previous victims?” she asked.

It was something he hadn’t even considered.  He blinked.  “No, I don’t think so.  The thought of that, of his releasing that film with all anonymity wiped away, it was horrifying to me.  But I’ve done humiliation.  It’s not as unending as it looks from outside.  Life goes on.”

“It does indeed,” she replied.  “I’m told you asked to see me.  What is your goal in seeking therapy?”

“Honestly, two things.  I want to double check my reactions.  I keep analyzing for long stretches of time, getting distracted from matters at hand.  I was hoping that you could help me get past the need to analyze.”

“All right.  And?”

“And I knew that General Hammond and Dr. Fraiser would insist, so I wanted to get it over with.”

She smiled.  “That is honesty,” she said.  “And I can understand your reasoning.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Daniel said.  “I don’t want to insult you, but I don’t trust psychotherapists of any flavor as a rule.”

“A lot of us are wackos, so I can understand why.”  She shook her head.  “I’m a bit unorthodox, but I think that you and I can work together.”

“I think so, too,” he said, surprised to feel that way.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that,” she replied.  “And if we’re going to be working together, please, call me Harry.  I may be old, but I don’t have to feel it.”

Daniel smiled.  “Harry,” he said.  “Well, if I’m calling you Harry, you’d better call me Daniel.”

“It’s a deal,” she said.  “Now, I think we’ve come to the end of today’s session.”  Daniel fished his watch out of his pocket to look at it and nodded.  “So, what I want you to do is consider the goals you stated, and come up with some things you want to talk about.  We’ll meet Friday at the same time, all right?”

“All right,” he said.

“And in the meantime, I’ll read through that file you gave me.”

“Right.”  He stood up.  “Thank you, Harry.”

“I’ll see you on Friday,” she said and, nodding, he left.  The last time he’d left a shrink’s office, it had been with a feeling of cold rage in his gut.  This made a nice change.


	81. Chapter 81

“So, you went to see Grady, I heard.”  Carter walked into his office and sat down in his guest chair.  “You have got to replace this, colonel.  I’ll see if I can find you something.”  He grunted and kept working on his report.  “Have you heard from the general yet?”

“Yes, I have,” Jack replied, and the recall of that blistering reprimand gave him no pleasure.

“Oh.  He can be really biting when he wants to be.”

“I know that, Carter.  Why do you ask?”

“I went to see Grady, too,” she said.  He turned in surprise.  “I just came from my meeting with the general.  He was . . . displeased.”

“Ah,” he said without stopping.  Then he paused, blinking.  Finally, eyes wide, he turned in his chair to look at her.  “General Hammond was displeased?  With you?”

“I only hit him once!” she exclaimed defensively.

“You hit him!”  She nodded, looking a bit abashed.  “Is he dead?”  Eyes wide, she shook her head.  “Carter!  What were you thinking?  You should have killed him when you had the chance.”

“Sir!”  Scandalized, she peered out the door, as if checking for possible listeners.

“Okay, maybe not,” he replied, sighing.  “Damn it, you hit him?”  Great, now he was going to hear about his lax discipline of his people from Hammond.

“In my defense, he touched me first, and --”

The rage that he had been suppressing stirred to life again.  “He touched you?” he asked.

“He grabbed my arm as I started to leave.”

“He touched you!”  He stood up and turned towards the door.

Carter slammed it before he could reach it.  “Sir, no!” she exclaimed.

He stopped and gazed down at his clenched fists.  “Right.”  He sat back down.  “Why was he grabbing you?” he asked.

“He was spouting a lot of nonsense, and I didn’t want to hear it anymore, so I went to leave.  He wasn’t done.”

“What nonsense?”

She looked up, utterly enraged.  “He seems to have gotten the idea, somehow, that Daniel’s some sort of sexual pervert who wants to be raped.”

Jack nodded, scowling.  “He said as much to me, and he said as much to Daniel.”

“It’s the oldest excuse in the book.  Men have been saying that about women for years, and it’s no truer now than it was then!”

“I know, Carter, you don’t have to convince me.”

“And you won’t believe this, sir.”  She was shaking with emotion.  “He tried to convince me to persuade you, sir, to help Daniel find ‘help’ for this problem he doesn’t have.  He said, he actually said, that he believes you have feelings for Daniel, and that if you chose to, you could offer him the ‘help’ he needs.  That’s when I left, sir, when he started that crap.”

Jack was clenching his fists so tightly that they hurt.  He’d set himself up, hadn’t he?  If he hadn’t gone to visit Grady, the bastard would never have gotten that idea.  And now he was passing it on to the next person who came to see him.  There was a little chime and he turned to see who had e-mailed him.  It was from General Hammond.  He opened it up and read it.

 

> Colonel O’Neill,
> 
> I have given orders to the guards that no one is to be permitted inside the prisoners’ cells without my express permission.  After your behavior earlier, Major Carter went in and got into an altercation with Major Grady.  Shortly thereafter, I had a visit from Teal’c who requested permission to go in and ‘hurt them.’  At least he asked first.  Please do not challenge the guards’ orders.
> 
> Hammond

 

Jack sighed.  “Now I feel like an unruly schoolboy,” he said, leaning back so Carter could read.

“Altercation!”  She sounded offended.  “It wasn’t an altercation.  I just punched him in the nose and he let go.”

He rolled his eyes and closed the e-mail.  “It doesn’t matter.  Hammond’s pissed, and I can’t entirely blame him.  We screwed up.”

She opened her mouth to protest but sighed in capitulation.  “I just wanted to know why he’d do such a thing.  He said he loves Daniel.  How can he possibly think that what he did was an expression of love?”

“He’s deluded.”  Jack shook his head.  “That’s why I wanted to talk to him, too, and it was pointless.  All I succeeded in doing was giving him the impression that I was jealous.”  He sat back, snorting in disgust at himself.

“If it’s any help, sir, I think he already had the notion you were interested,” Carter said tentatively.  He raised an eyebrow dubiously.  “He asked Daniel on Friday night if you were ‘whispering sweet nothings.’  That certainly hints in that direction.”  He shrugged, but she pursued it.  “The point is, sir, that this isn’t a new notion.  He already had it.”

His computer chimed again and he looked over.  “It’s time for my appointment with Dr. Lisle,” he said.

“She’s one hell of a good counselor,” she said.  “I saw her yesterday.  I guess she’s seeing everyone who viewed the recordings or helped in the rescue.”

“That’s good to know.  We could all use it.”

“Teal’c saw her yesterday, too.  He came out muttering something I couldn’t understand.”

Jack stood up.  “Pass that message from Hammond along to Teal’c, would you?  And tell him about hitting Grady.  That might make him feel a bit better.”

She grinned and they parted ways.

* * *

Over the next several days, Daniel continued to tire easily, but after the weekend, during which Jack insisted that the archeologist rest, much of his usual vitality returned.  He set to work on a translation project that seemed to require copious amounts of Carter’s time.  She described it as physics written by Shakespeare, which Jack thought was a double dose of trouble.

Teal’c spent a lot of time working out with various people, including Tony to Jack’s mild surprise.  Jack went every morning to the hearings for Glen and Grady.  He was determined to see justice done.  He just sat in the back of the room, arms crossed, watching, probably making people nervous.  Hammond started asking in for reports after the first day.

His appointments with Harry were proving beneficial, but Daniel’s seemed to be proving even more so.  His nightmares hadn’t stopped, but she’d okayed the judicious use of ‘a good stiff drink’ as a way to help Daniel get to sleep at night, but vetoed it for Jack because of his prior history.

They were now helping each other deal with nightmares, and that was making Jack feel more than a little guilty.  Daniel was the one who’d been attacked, but Jack was having as many nightmares at he was.  He’d wondered about Carter, but a careful question determined that she hadn’t been having bad dreams the way he and Daniel were having them.  A few troubling dreams that drew from Jolinar’s memories, but nothing like his and Daniel’s.

But now Daniel had stopped having those alarming moments of sudden, unexplained introspection, which made talking to him a lot easier.  They still had occasional midnight conversations about the crap that had been going on, but that was fine.  When one of them woke the other out of a nightmare, a discussion almost always ensued given that neither of them was eager to go back to sleep after one of those occasions.

After the hearing on Wednesday, Jack went into the gym and found Teal’c and Tony working out.  They had something of an audience, and Jack could see why.  Tony was doing extraordinarily well against the Jaffa, despite the injury to his leg.  Teal’c was going easy on him, but only just.  Jack had spent enough years training with the Jaffa to know just how much he was pulling his punches, and right now he was almost up to normal training levels.  The fight came to a sudden end when Tony’s leg collapsed underneath him.  Teal’c, being a serious fighter, moved in to immobilize him.  It was then that Tony struck like a viper, flipping Teal’c onto his back and pressing a forearm against the Jaffa’s throat.  Teal’c tapped out and Tony stood up, resting as much of his weight as much as he ever did on his bad leg.

Teal’c got to his own feet and smiled, bowing slightly to the lieutenant and there was a smattering of applause from the audience.

Jack stood up, adding his own applause to the others and walked across.  “Excellent work, Lt. Sciaparelli,” he said.  “One note to add, a Jaffa is particularly vulnerable here,” he added, gesturing towards the symbiote pouch.

“Indeed,” Teal’c said.

“Come along to my office once you’ve cleaned up,” he said to the lieutenant, who nodded and went toward the locker room.  Teal’c raised an eyebrow at him.  “How are you doing?”

“I do well,” Teal’c said.  “Dr. Lisle is a very wise woman.”

“I’m glad to hear it.  Are your classes going well with the newbies?”

“They are.  Is DanielJackson sleeping any better?”

Jack shrugged.  “Some nights.  Other nights are not so good.”

“It will improve,” Teal’c said with steadfast optimism that Jack couldn’t help appreciating.

Tony emerged from the locker room and Jack nodded.  “See you later, T.”

“Indeed.”  Teal’c turned to the gathered men, and Jack realized that he was about to give a class.  Taking Tony back to his office, he closed the door and sat down, gesturing the younger man to his new, more ergonomically friendly guest chair.  Tony settled down and waited attentively.

Without preamble, he said, “How is Daniel doing?  I can’t observe him without changing his behavior, and he may not be reporting things entirely accurately to me.”

Tony blinked and Jack wondered if he was going to report accurately.  “Surprisingly well, sir,” he said finally.  “He has his moments, but don’t we all?”

“Have people stopped pestering him as much?”

“People are getting more used to coming to me first when it’s work related.  And I’m getting a better feel for Daniel’s preferences.  Like, if it’s one of the other linguists with a question they need to ask, he doesn’t mind being interrupted.  If it’s someone looking for an ETA on something, well, I get Daniel to give me his impressions on how long things are going to take at the beginning of the day, so I usually have an answer for them so they don’t have to bug Daniel.”

“Good.”  Jack nodded.  Looked like Sciaparelli was earning his keep.  He tilted his head.  “And what about you?  How are you doing?  Things have been a little odd around here.”

Tony paused thoughtfully.  “I’m fine, sir.  Dr. Lisle released me from appointments yesterday.”

“Good.  Do you like what you’re doing?”

“I do, sir.  I feel like I’m really contributing to the success of our mission here.  At my last posting I felt like a file clerk.  Here I feel like an active part of a team.  I’m learning Goa’uld to help in my sorting process, and I feel like soldier again.”

“That’s great,” Jack said.  “I hope you won’t be needed, but I’m glad to see that you’re prepared to be part of the base defense.”

“Of course, sir,” Tony said.

“Do you have any concerns?  Anything you’d like to discuss with me?”

“No sir, I don’t think so.”

“Well then, remember that my office door is always open to you.”  Tony nodded.  “Dismissed.”

The lieutenant rose and left and Jack returned to his reports, feeling very pleased that he’d taken that particular unilateral action.  Now they had two fine new members of the SGC, for Lt. Megan Pearce had come in with another small group of newbies on Monday.  Hammond seemed to be taking ruthless advantage of Jack’s enforced time on world to bring in as many newbies as possible and have him train them.

Jack sighed, then grinned.  With the rate Daniel was improving, he’d better hurry.


	82. Chapter 82

Tony returned to his office and checked his in file.  Nothing new.  He checked with Press and Greene who were coping well with the influx of files they’d had that morning.  Greene handed him three files that still needed to be checked, so he took them and headed back to his office just in time to intercept the interoffice mail.

Cards and notes were still arriving for Daniel from the various people who were returning from leave or offworld assignments to hear about his experience.  There were three such missives in today’s mail.  He took them in with him to Daniel’s office.  The archeologist seemed to be ears deep in his current translation, so Tony put the stack of files down on the corner of the desk where they’d agreed he put things that needed initial evaluation and went back to his own office.

He had a few reports to go over, and he was still reading his way through the mission logs.  He waited about a half hour and went to see if Daniel had managed to look at the files.  Two of them were sitting by the door, marked with sticky notes, one was sitting in his non-urgent inbox, but Tony’s attention was caught firmly by Daniel himself.

He sat motionless on his stool, a sheet of paper clenched in his hand.  He wasn’t wearing his jacket, so the muscles and tendons of his arm stood out like iron bars, disappearing under the white bandage that guarded the still-healing injuries to his wrist.  An envelope lay unregarded on his desk atop two cards.  Tony walked forward.  “Daniel?” he asked, but received no response.  Tony went right up to him.  “Daniel?” he said again.

Daniel turned to face him, eyes full of shocked fury.  Tears were welling in them as well.  He seemed incapable of speech.

“What is it?” Tony askedgently.

“A letter from Grady,” Daniel said finally.  “Get Jack, would you?”

Eyes widening, Tony picked up the phone and called.  The colonel wasn’t in his office, so Tony said, “Daniel, I have to go find him.  I’ll be right back.”  He started to go out himself, but then thought better of it.  Instead, he called Sgt. Press and had him go seeking O’Neill.  Then he went back into Daniel’s office.  The archeologist’s frozen immobility hadn’t changed.  Tony wasn’t sure what to do, so he just hovered nearby, wishing he could help.

Finally, Colonel O’Neill came in.  Tony had given Press minimal information, so he looked worried but not angry.  Not yet.  “What’s up?” he asked.

Daniel turned, the paper still clutched in his hand.  “Grady wrote me a letter,” he said.

O’Neill let out a profane growl and said, “Let me see.”

“I don’t --”  His emotions seemed to be getting the better of him.  Tony sent Press away and closed the door.  “I --”

O’Neill walked over and put one arm around Daniel’s shoulders and put his other hand on the letter.  “Daniel, it’s okay.”

As if the touch had released something, Daniel slumped and his grip on the paper released.  O’Neill took the page, but he couldn’t read it as it was, and he seemed unwilling to release the arm around Daniel.  Tony walked up and took it, smoothing it out before handing it back.  The colonel nodded his appreciation and read quickly.  Tony peered over his shoulder at the writing.

 

> Dearest Daniel,
> 
> I wish that my love had been acceptable to you, and I devoutly wish, as sentencing approaches, that you had understood that I intended you no harm.  However, that’s not important now.  The need that I discerned in you still exists and still needs managing.  Please find someone to help you deal with it.
> 
> I believe that if you approached him correctly, Jack O’Neill could provide you with the help you need.  He’s not the man I’d choose for you, but he appears to care for you, and I’ve seen that you care for him.  His feelings, of necessity, have had to remain hidden, but your need should overcome that if he truly loves you.
> 
> Please allow me to apologize for Glen’s boorish behavior, or rather not so much for his behavior as for the fact that I let him get close enough to you to endanger you.  I see now that I should never have become involved with him, and that I certainly should never have permitted him access to you.  I am deeply sorry.
> 
> My feelings for you have not changed, and will not.  I never said anything to you while we were together because I didn’t think the time was right, but I love you with all my heart.  You’re a beautiful, extraordinary man, and I think we could have had an enduring and passionate relationship if events hadn’t ended things early.  If only we’d had more time, I would have made you the happiest man alive.  Please take care of yourself.
> 
> All my love,
> 
> Nate

 

“Mother fucking son of a bitch!”  Tony jumped as the sudden sound of O’Neill’s voice revealed that the colonel had finished reading the letter.  Shocked and appalled, Tony turned to see how Daniel was now.  Elbows on his desk, he’d buried his face in his hands.  O’Neill threw the letter down and said, “It’s not true, Daniel.  I don’t have those kinds of feelings for you.”

“I know.”  Daniel lifted his face from his hands, revealing that he was now crying in earnest.  His voice nasal from congestion, he said, “This isn’t the first time he’s said something like that to me.  I don’t believe him.”

“How did this damned thing get through?  I take it there was no warning?”

Tony shook his head.  “It was just in with some cards.  He’s been getting notes and cards all week, so I didn’t think twice about it.”

“And I don’t recognize the handwriting of everyone on base, so I just opened it, expecting yet another ‘gosh, that sucks’ note.”  He sniffled.  “If it wouldn’t have gotten you into trouble, I’d wish you’d shot him when I told you to.”

“I wish I had, too,” O’Neill said.  He paused, seeming oddly irresolute.  “Daniel, what do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know,” Daniel said.  “Any response whatsoever from me to this letter would only be seen as encouragement, but it has to be included in his file.”

“Yes,” Jack said.

“What does he mean, he loves me?” Daniel demanded, looking angry and just a little frightened.  “Is he kidding, or is he just that insane?”

O’Neill didn’t look like he wanted to answer that question, which was an answer in and of itself.  Daniel just kept watching him, though, waiting.  Finally, the colonel cleared his throat.  “He’s not kidding, I don’t think,” he said.  “He’s said something to me and to Carter about that.”

Daniel shook his head.  “I thought he was just sex-obsessed.  Are you saying he was obsessed with me in a more long term way?”

O’Neill looked uneasy.  “There’ve been a few things discovered.  I only just found out about them myself, and I’ve been trying to decide how to broach them to you.”

“Some things?” Daniel asked.

Tony wondered if he should be present for this, but wasn’t quite sure how to excuse himself.  Colonel O’Neill took care of the problem for him.  “Tony, would you take this, make a copy, and have the original added to the file regarding Major Grady?”

“Yes sir.”

“Then take the copy to General Hammond.  He’ll want to be informed of this immediately.”

Tony nodded and saluted, took the paper and left quickly.  He had a feeling that heads would roll.  He just hoped his own wouldn’t be on that list.

* * *

Jack hated seeing Daniel this upset, and he wanted to personally strangle Grady, whoever Grady had given the letter to and whoever had passed it on to Daniel without comment.  Tony hadn’t had any reason to suspect anything, and neither had Daniel, but the letter had to have gotten into the interoffice mail somehow.

“What have you found out?” Daniel asked when Tony had left the room and shut the door.  The archeologist still had tears in his eyes, and one periodically ran down one cheek or the other, but he wasn’t crying actively.  Jack wished he had better news.

“Not me.  The team searching Grady’s houses.”  Jack wet his lips and pulled a stool up to sit next to Daniel.  “There is a hidden cache of items that seem to be devoted to you.”  Daniel’s eyes widened and Jack saw his Adam’s apple bob as he gulped.  “Lots of photographs, which begs the question of what Grady did in his off time.”  Jack was still debating on whether to share with Daniel the other information they’d picked up.  They now had twelve DVDs of Grady’s conquests, and several video tapes as well.  His last two had borne more than superficial resemblance to Daniel, and Jack really wasn’t sure that he needed to know that.  “One of your journals, a shirt I’m guessing he took from your locker, lots and lots of photographs, including some from the newspaper at the time of your parents’ deaths.”  Daniel went very pale and Jack reached out to squeeze his arm.

“So he really was fixated on me,” Daniel said in a colorless voice.  “I wasn’t just someone to fuck.”

“I’m afraid so.  It also looks like he’s been picking up on guys who look like you.”

Daniel shuddered, arms wrapped around his torso.  “I’m not that interesting,” he said in a small voice.  “Why me?”

Jack shrugged.  “Because you seemed to fit whatever arbitrary parameters Grady set for himself, I’d guess,” Jack said.  “This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with him.  I don’t think he’s able to see that other individuals have importance apart from what they can offer to him.  Maybe that’s overstating it, but he’s a supremely selfish individual.”

“I don’t want to think about him anymore,” Daniel said, and Jack sympathized, but Daniel didn’t seem to be able to stop.  He slipped off his stool and started pacing.  “Why would he write that?  What point is there?  He set this chain of events into motion, and I can’t stop them.  Even if I went to Hammond right now and said that I’d forgiven the bastard, it wouldn’t get him out of that cell or back in his unit.”

“He wants to prove he can still touch you,” Jack said.  “And I suspect he can’t help hoping that you’ll come around and at least carry on some kind of correspondence with him.”

“He can’t believe he failed,” Daniel said sourly.  “And he wants me to feel guilty for not sharing his desires.”

“Do you?” Jack asked without thinking, then clenched his teeth, hoping he hadn’t upset Daniel further.

Daniel just shook his head.  “If he’d approached me, told me what he wanted, how he felt, I would have felt sorry for him, maybe, but . . . I suppose that conversation in my office was supposed to be a way of feeling me out, seeing if I was into the same things, but he only saw what he wanted to see.”

“On another note, I’m not sure how you’ll feel about this, but three separate individuals, two in the US and one in Britain, have reported the DVDs they bought to their local police departments as rape.”  Daniel looked like he didn’t know quite how to take that and Jack sympathized.  “And the computer boys have figured out a solution of sorts to the problem of it being out there.”

“What’s that?”

“They’ve created a virus that attaches itself to any of the variety of virus checker programs out there, that will scan the hard drive of any computer it invades for both versions of either of the two movies that were sent out digitally, and the teasers.  If it doesn’t find them, it lays dormant, undetectable.  If it finds them, it destroys all data on that computer.  It’s already been proven effective, and they’re releasing it later on this evening.”

Daniel nodded slowly.  “It’s a start, but what about people who burned copies on CD?”

“There will be follow up visits, and all the credit cards of people who purchased the movies have been frozen.  Complaints are coming in from all over, and visits are being made.  And once the virus goes out, there will be more complaints to follow up.  It will be dealt with, Daniel, I assure you.  This has pissed a lot of people off severely.”

Again, Daniel nodded, and Jack wondered what was going on in his mind.  “I want to get back to work.  I don’t want to think about him anymore.”

“Okay, Daniel.  I’ll go see . . . I’ll go talk to Hammond.”

Daniel nodded and turned back to the work at hand.  Jack left uncertainly, but when he saw Tony outside he felt a little easier about it.  “Keep an eye on him,” he said quietly and the lieutenant nodded.  He swung by his office to see if Hammond had sent him any messages and saw an alarmingly familiar envelope on his desk with the rest of his interoffice mail.  He walked inside, shut the door and looked at it.  Then he carefully slit it open.

 

> Colonel O’Neill,
> 
> It’s clear that my one and only chance to win Daniel’s affections is over, but he needs the help I tried to give him.  You must look inside yourself for the ability to disregard the arbitrary rules placed on us by society at large and the military in specific.  If you love Daniel, and I know you do, you must help him to avoid the pitfalls he keeps steering himself towards.  Give him the safety he needs to express his darker desires.
> 
> He is a man of such passion and brilliance that it overflows beyond his capacity to control it, and he has clearly become so addicted to adrenaline that he must seek it out.  You must help him bleed off some of this passion so that he can direct the rest toward the goals that we all agree are most beneficial to himself and others.
> 
> If you cannot do this, then you are no real friend to him.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Nathaniel Grady

 

Jack looked up from the letter and fought the urge to burn it.  Instead he awakened his computer from sleep and checked his e-mail.  As he had expected, there was an e-mail from Hammond requesting his presence when convenient.  Jack took his letter to the copier, made a copy, passed the original into evidence with Daniel’s and then went to the general’s office.

Hammond was sitting at his desk, working on something that looked like gate schedules.  Jack knocked on the door frame and waited.  The general gestured him to a seat and kept working for a moment.

Jack sat and waited.  After several moments, Hammond looked up.  “I see you have a copy of the letter in front of you,” he said, nodding towards the paper in Jack’s hand.  “I --”

“No sir,” Jack said and Hammond raised his eyebrows at the interruption.  “I didn’t want more than one copy wandering around.  This is a copy of the letter Grady sent me.”

Hammond’s eyes widened.  “The letter he sent you?”  Jack smiled tightly and handed it across.  Scanning through it swiftly, Hammond grew visibly angrier by the second.  His jaw was set and his eyes were narrow by the time he was through.  “I see.  So now he’s exhorting others to do as he did, for Dr. Jackson’s benefit.”

“As far as I know, sir, it’s just me so far.”

The general shook his head.  “I thought I had everything coming out of his cell censored properly.  Who the hell put this into the general interoffice mail?”

“I don’t know, sir.  I brought it to your attention as soon as I was aware of it.  Do you want me to look into it?”

“No, colonel,” Hammond said.  “You’re involved.  That would smack too much of retaliation.  You steer clear of this investigation.”  Just as glad to receive that instruction, Jack nodded.  “How is Dr. Jackson?”

“Angry, alarmed, disturbed.  I told him about all the signs of fixation the investigation has picked up on, and now he’s more than a little upset, but he wanted to get back to work, so I left him with Lt. Sciaparelli keeping an eye on him.”

“You’re going to have to tell him about this, too,” Hammond said.  “But I do think these two letters will just about put the last nail in Grady’s coffin.  The evaluation team is overhauling their methods, not that I think it will help much.  Sociopaths are notoriously hard to detect.”

“Is that what he is?”

“Dr. Lisle says he’s a serial killer looking for a place to happen.  According to her, we’re just lucky he acted now, before he escalated to the next level.”

Jack felt his insides twist into a knot.  “That’s a lovely image.  Thank you for that.”

Hammond shrugged.  “Is Dr. Jackson in need of anything that I can provide?”

“You can get Grady out of here so he can’t pull that kind of trick ever again.  It will cut down on my temptation to commit murder, as well.”

Hammond nodded dryly.  “I’ve gotten the distinct impression that his current jailers feel much the same.”

Jack blinked.  “They’re afraid I’m going to try and kill him?”

“That too, I imagine, but I think they’re more concerned that he’ll push one of them over the edge.”  Delightful images sprang to life in Jack’s mind, and Hammond must have seen that in his eyes because he spoke repressively.  “Never mind.”

“Well, if there’s nothing else, sir . . .”

“Nothing for now.  I just wanted to make sure our boy was all right.”  He looked down at the letters on his desk.  “I’ll make sure Dr. Lisle gets copies of these,” he said.  “Thank you, colonel.”

Recognizing the dismissal, Jack rose, tossed the general a salute that he acknowledged with a wave of the wrong hand and left the room.


	83. Chapter 83

Daniel gave up.  He threw his pen down and glared at the manuscript.  He needed something that wasn’t written by hand, something whose curls and curves wouldn’t reshape themselves into the words of Grady’s letter.  Love?  That bastard had some notion that he’d expressed love by that attack?

He stood up and gathered up the items that went with this file.  He needed something else to work on.  Fortunately, his inboxes weren’t anywhere near empty.  Rummaging through, he found a nice large tablet with square cut symbols to work on and settled down at his desk again.

Time passed.  A sandwich followed by cookies showed up at his elbow, he ate his way absently through them, and the plates vanished without his noticing their departure.  He translated his way through the tablet, which was a law text rather than the history its finder had so hopefully marked it as.  Not that law texts weren’t helpful, but a nice history explaining the ways of the Goa’uld on the relevant planet would be more useful.

A hand on his shoulder made him tense and he looked up to see Jack standing next to him.  “Time to go home,” he said.

“Is it?” Daniel asked, looking at his watch.  He wasn’t wearing it, and the neat white bandage on his wrist reminded him of why, so he looked across the top of his desk and found it under a sheet of paper.  Eight o’clock.  Jack had given him some leeway tonight.  He stood up and stretched, surprised as always by how stiff he was.  It never seemed to him that he’d been sitting still that long.

“Yup, let’s go, Dannyboy.”

“Jack, why do you call me that?”

“So you’ll ask me that question.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Ah, but it doesn’t have to.  That’s one of the wonderful things about being a colonel.  I can do lots of things that make no sense at all.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.  “Right, Jack.”

They changed and went home.  Daniel was still feeling pretty distant from the modern, Earth-centric world, he’d gotten so buried in the translation.  Jack stopped for food but Daniel didn’t pay much attention.  He finally identified why he was still so firmly stuck in his thoughts about that useless legal document.  It wasn’t just that he had a reasonably strong interest in the murder laws of a long-dead culture on a planet light years from Earth, though that was certainly true.  He was trying not to think about that damned letter Grady had sent him.

Jack climbed back in.  “You’re quiet tonight.”

“Yeah,” Daniel replied.

Jack waited, but when Daniel didn’t say anything more he just started the truck and pulled out of the parking space.  They went back to the house and Daniel got plates while Jack set the food out on the coffee table.  Chinese.  Daniel spooned rice out onto his plate and then started opening the other little packages.  Jack put on a movie and they watched while they ate.

When they’d both eaten their fill, and the food was put away, and the movie was over, it was nearly ten o’clock.  Daniel was sitting back in his seat, not thinking very hard about anything at all.  Then Jack sat forward, and it became abundantly clear that he wasn’t going to allow that comfortable state of affairs to last.  Daniel shook his head.  “I don’t want to talk about the letter Grady wrote me.”

Jack pursed his lips.  “I wasn’t going to talk about the letter Grady wrote _you_.”  The subtle stress Jack laid on the last word made Daniel look up sharply and Jack nodded.  “He wrote me a letter, too, urging me to stop denying my feelings, etc., ad nauseum.”

Daniel stared at Jack’s face, then turned his head and stared at the blank TV screen.  “So now he’s urging _you_ to come after me?” Daniel demanded, feeling more than a little stunned.  Something exploded in his mind.  “What?” he shrieked.  “My body’s got to be used by someone, otherwise it might go to waste?  Daniel Jackson does the rest of the male universe?  Maybe they’ll sell that video.”  Jack gaped at him.  “And you’re supposed to be next.”  He leapt up and started hurriedly undoing the buttons on his shirt.  “Well, let’s get it over with so I can move on to General Hammond.  Or maybe Siler.  Or Teal’c!  We wouldn’t want him to feel left out, or does he not count because he’s Jaffa?”

His emotions carried him through tossing his button-down shirt on the couch and yanking off his t-shirt but no further.  He stood there, tears brimming in his eyes, hands flexing but not quite fisting, while Jack stared at him.  After a moment, Jack stood up and walked over to him.

Putting his hands on Daniel’s shoulders, he said, “I don’t want you sexually, Daniel.”

A surge of totally unexpected rage swept through him and he swung his arms up, knocking Jack’s hands off him.  “Why not?” he demanded.  “Come on, Jack, don’t you want to stick your dick up my ass?  Then you can go back to girls!  I’m the only one who has to have sex with every man in the universe!”

Jack’s expression didn’t change.  “No, Daniel, I don’t,” he said calmly.

“What, is there something wrong with me?  Am I only appealing to wackos?”  Daniel couldn’t regain control of his mouth.  He was carried away on a torrent of fury that wouldn’t let up.  “You’re not a sexual pervert, so you don’t find me attractive?”  Jack reached out and put a hand on Daniel’s shoulder again and Daniel smacked it away.  “Or am I just soiled?  Grady fucked me and that ruins me for decent men?”

“Daniel, don’t do this to yourself,” Jack said.

He turned away from Jack and slammed his hands down onto the coffee table, sending his wrists screaming from pain.  “Do what?  I didn’t do anything!  I got fucked.  I couldn’t stop it.  I couldn’t stop anything!  I was nothing more than a doll to Grady, and now he wants to pass me on to the next little boy in line!”

“Daniel, you’re more than that.  Grady is a bastard and a sociopath.  Don’t --”

“But Jack, you can’t forget!” Daniel growled.  “I’m irresponsible.  I’m a danger to the team.  If I don’t get screwed, we’re all gonna die!”

“Daniel --”

“So if it’s not you, I’ve got to find someone else.  A male prostitute, maybe.”  He shoved past Jack who let him go by, seeming utterly stunned by this sudden explosion.  “Or maybe I’ll just go down to that bar on the corner and find the biggest, smelliest son of a bitch, and what was it Grady said?  Shake my ass at him!”

* * *

Daniel’s hand was actually on the doorknob before Jack reached him.  He slammed his hand onto the door, pushing it shut again, his heart thudding in his chest at the thought of what the enraged and irrational archeologist might do.  “Daniel, stop this.  You --”

“I what?” Daniel demanded, turning on him and yelling in his face.  “What, Jack?  I need to get laid?  That’s what this is about!  I’m not dressed for bar hopping?”  He looked down at his chest.  “Oh, I don’t know, I think this outfit says it all!  I’m beautiful?  Sexy?  Hot?  Vulnerable?  Helpless?  Useless?  What?  I’ve heard all those!  What?”

“You aren’t what Grady said you were,” Jack said, striving to keep his own cool in the face of this explosion from Daniel.  “You’re a decent man who --”

“Decent men don’t go around getting raped by aliens and co-workers, Jack.”  Daniel was out of control, and Jack didn’t know how to get him back.  “Decent men don’t get assaulted by men in prisons, or by foreign princesses.”  Daniel yanked hard on the door again, but Jack held it shut.  “Decent men don’t seek out sexual danger, or whatever the crap that was!  Clearly, I am not a decent man!”  He glared angrily at Jack.  “Let me go!”

“Daniel, please, that’s not true.”

“Let me go, Jack!” Daniel growled.

“No,” Jack said.  “I’m not letting you leave in this state.”

“What state?  This newly awakened, fully aware state?”  Daniel’s eyes were manic, and his hands were waving wildly around.  “You don’t like the fact that I’ve figured out what it’s all about?  That I’ve figured out that I’m nothing more than a great big blow up doll for the entire male population of the galaxy?”

“Daniel, you’re not any of those things.  You didn’t deserve what happened to you, and you don’t need to do this!”  Daniel stared at him for a long moment, then turned around abruptly and headed for the kitchen.  Jack followed, startled, then hurried after him, remembering the sliding glass doors in the kitchen.  “Daniel, no!”

He managed to catch Daniel’s arm, but the archeologist turned on him again, punching him hard in the shoulder.  “Let go!  Grady says I need to get fucked, and you won’t do it!”

“Grady’s a liar and a psychopath and an idiot!” Jack yelled.  “Listen to me!”

“Why?  So you can spout off ideological nonsense that bears no resemblance to the real world?  I’ve got three doctorates, Jack, and Grady reduced me to the status of a sex toy!  If it’s that easy, I must be pretty damned pathetic.”

Jack was holding him tightly, but he didn’t want to hurt him.  Daniel took ruthless advantage of this and wrenched his arm around, trying to get free.  He broke Jack’s grip before he knew what was happening, and launched himself for the glass doors.  Jack leapt after, throwing his arms around Daniel’s upper body and turning as he did so in a controlled move that slammed him back first into the wall beside the glass doors.  He slid down carefully, bringing Daniel with him.

“Stop it, Daniel,” he said into the other man’s ear.  “It’s not true.  You’re not pathetic.  You’re not a toy.  Please, stop it.”

Daniel collapsed in his arms, but Jack didn’t relax his vigilance.  Daniel was a smart man, and Jack didn’t want to be taken by surprise.  The archeologist’s shoulders started shaking, and tears struck Jack’s arms as he started to weep.  After a few moments, Jack released his tight hold on Daniel and turned the younger man so that he was leaning against his chest.

“It’s okay, Daniel.  It’s okay.”  Gradually, the tense body relaxed against his, and Daniel wept like a broken-hearted child.  He held the younger man close, whispering reassurances, until the weeping stilled.  After a moment of silence, Jack said, “Daniel?”  There was no response, and Jack pushed him gently away to look into his face.  “Daniel, you in there?”

Daniel was wiped out from the look of him.  His eyes were tracking, but he was not at home.  Jack got him to his feet, talking to him as they climbed the steps to Daniel’s bedroom.  Once in the room, Jack decided to forget getting him changed.  He got his shoes off, then helped him pull off his pants, a little fearful that this would renew his clamor to ‘get fucked,’ but Daniel didn’t move.  He sat him down in his boxers on the bed, got him to lie down, and pulled the covers up over him, then went quickly to fetch a couple of blankets and a pillow from his room.  He wasn’t leaving Daniel alone tonight, no way in hell.  He wondered if he should call Dr. Fraiser, but he wasn’t sure there was much point now.  The explosion had been contained, and this numbness wouldn’t do any harm.

He picked up the book he’d left in here several days ago and, moving the bedside table, sat down on the floor beside the bed.  Opening the book, he began to read aloud.  “Once upon a time there was a Little House way out in the country.  She was a pretty Little House and she was strong and well built.  The man who built her said . . .”

Jack read through the book and looked at Daniel.  His eyes were closed, but Jack wasn’t altogether certain he was asleep.  Leaving him alone for just a moment, the door open, Jack went downstairs and started a pot of strong coffee in the coffeemaker.  Then he went upstairs and watched Daniel for a few minutes.  Then he went back downstairs and got himself a large mug of coffee and sat down on the floor again with another book, reading silently.

Sleep really wasn’t an option.


	84. Chapter 84

At seven the next morning, Jack poured himself yet another cup of hot coffee and called the base.  General Hammond was sure to be there by now.  He’d had to leave Daniel alone again, but now he was reasonably certain the archeologist was actually sleeping.

Hammond’s secretary answered and put him right through.  “Hammond,” the precise voice said.

“General, this is Colonel O’Neill.  I have a bit of a . . . Daniel and I won’t be coming in today.”

“What’s happened?”

Jack turned around to make sure Daniel wasn’t right behind him and said, “An explosion that’s been building for a while now just went kablooey.”

Hammond was silent for a moment.  Then he said, “Is Dr. Jackson all right?”

“I think so, but I’m not sure whether or not to expect a repeat of it, and I don’t think he needs to do something like that at the base.”

“How bad was it?”

“Nuclear meltdown.”  He heard Hammond’s intake of breath.  “He tried to get me to . . . to follow Grady’s instructions, then when I wouldn’t, he decided he’d go down to the corner bar and find the first fellow who would.”

“Fuck!”

Jack blinked.  He’d never once heard the general use foul language.  He swallowed.  “Yes, sir, that was the agenda.”

“That wasn’t what I meant!” Hammond growled.  “What’s he doing now?”

“He’s asleep, I think.  He . . . it was pretty bad, sir.  Screaming, shouting, even some hitting.  I don’t think he’s had any good outlet for his anger, and it all came out.”  He heard movement upstairs and he said, “Give me a minute, I need to go check on him.”  Without waiting for an answer, he put the phone down on the counter and sprinted up the stairs.  The toilet flushed, and Jack ducked back out of the way as Daniel walked back into the bedroom and curled up into the fetal position on the bed.  He watched for several moments, but Daniel didn’t move again.

Going back downstairs, he picked up the phone.  “It’s okay.  He’s asleep again.  He just . . . he’s asleep again.”

“He what, colonel?” Hammond demanded.

“Normal bodily functions, sir,” Jack said.

“Oh.”  They were silent for a moment.  “Have you slept at all?”

“No, sir.”

“Do you need some back up?”

Jack took another swallow of coffee.  “It might not be a bad thing if Teal’c were here, and I think we might benefit from Harry’s wisdom in a few hours when Daniel wakes up.”

“What about Major Carter?”

Jack bit his lip.  “This is not her area, sir.  I don’t want to hurt her feelings, but I don’t think she needs to be here.  I don’t think he could take her fussing.”

Hammond was silent for a moment.  “She’s actually working on a pretty critical project right now,” he said after shuffling some papers.  “Is there anyone else you think could help out?  You and Teal’c are only two, after all.”

“Let me give it some thought,” Jack said.  “I’ve really got to go, sir.  I don’t want to leave him alone too long.”

“I understand.  I’ll dispatch Teal’c immediately.”

Jack hung up the phone and went back upstairs with his coffee.

After about ten more minutes, Daniel rolled over and said, “I’m sorry, Jack.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Daniel.”

“Jack, I --”

“You were hurt, Daniel,” Jack said, forestalling him.  “If you bled on me because you were hurt physically, I wouldn’t be mad at you.”

Daniel was silent for a moment, staring up at the ceiling.  “I’d probably still apologize.”

Jack raised his eyebrows and nodded consideringly.  “Yeah.  Yeah, knowing you, you probably would.”

“I hit you, Jack.”

“I’ve hit you in the past.”

“You were infected by an alien disease,” Daniel said in tones of irritated patience.  “It’s not at all the same thing.”

“No?” Jack asked.  “You were badly traumatized.  You’d forgive me without being asked in the same circumstance.  Allow me to extend the same courtesy to you.”

Daniel seemed to have a little trouble following this, but he finally shrugged.  It was an odd gesture to watch in a man who was lying down.

“Now, let me say this for the record, and I want you to listen to me.  You are a good man who’s had a string of really rotten luck.  You didn’t deserve any of what happened to you, and Grady is a prick who doesn’t know the first thing about you or anyone else for that matter.”

“Jack . . .”

“You’re not a toy, nor are you pathetic, and I don’t want to hear you say either of those things again.  Grady may have used you and abused you, but he didn’t change you.”

“Jack . . .”  His voice was sounding a little more desperate now, so Jack judged it was time to change the subject.

“And now it’s time for breakfast.”  Jack stood up and pulled Daniel into a sitting position.  “And Teal’c will be here sometime in the next hour, so you might want to get cleaned up a little.”

“Why is Teal’c coming here?  Don’t we have to go to work?”

“We’ve got the day off,” Jack said.

“Because of last night,” Daniel said sounding disgusted with himself.

“Because you need some time, Daniel.  Shit happens, and it doesn’t go away on its own.”

Daniel got up.  “I’m going to take a shower.”

Jack nodded.  “I’ll see you downstairs in twenty minutes, then,” he said.  Daniel gave him an odd look, but Jack just raised his eyebrows innocently.  He wasn’t taking any chances after all those remarks about him being soiled the night before.

Jack headed down to the kitchen and started putting together the fixings for pancakes.  He kept an eye on the clock and was just starting to go towards the stairs when he heard feet coming down.  Daniel appeared, bandages and medicine in hand, hair still wet but not dripping.  He was wearing a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, and he looked annoyed.

“Is there a water shortage?” he asked.  Jack raised an eyebrow, and he added, “What was the thing with the time limit?”

Jack shrugged and turned back to cooking.  “You figure it out.”  Daniel pursed his lips and sat down, starting to medicate his wrists preparatory to bandaging them.  Jack abandoned the mixture and sat down across from him.  “Let me help with that.”

“I can do it.”

“I know.  Does that mean I can’t help?”

Daniel sighed, closed his eyes, and sat back, letting Jack take over.  Very gently, Jack smeared the antibiotic ointment on and bandaged the injuries.  “I’m sorry, Jack, I don’t know what came over me last night.  I turned into a raving maniac.”

Jack shrugged.  “You let out a boatload of anger that had been building up, and it was clearly needed, so don’t worry too much about it.”

“How can I not?  I asked you to . . . to shove your dick up my ass.”  Daniel was beet red as he spoke.  “I can’t believe I said that to you, and I can’t believe you can stand there calmly and act like it doesn’t matter.”  He looked up and his eyes were gleaming with unshed tears.

“Once, not too long ago, you made the suggestion that I was ‘acting out’ on my anger about something.”  Daniel raised his eyebrows, looking alarmed.  “That’s all you were doing, Daniel.  You were expressing your anger, your fears, your guilt.  Admittedly, it was at the top of your lungs, but that’s all it was.”

“You’re telling me all I did last night was vent.”  Tears leaked from the corners of Daniel’s eyes, and he reached up with his free hand to dash them away.

Pretending not to notice, Jack nodded.  “Just venting.”

“Venting doesn’t involve violence, Jack.”

“Fight or flight,” Jack said.

“What?”

“Fight or flight,” he repeated.

Daniel gave him an irritated look.  “I heard you, Jack, I just didn’t understand the turn into non sequitur.”

“It’s not a non sequitur, Daniel,” Jack said patiently.  “You were in pain, which made you angry and the strength of that emotion scared you.  What are the two reactions to fear?”

Daniel blinked.  “Go on.”

“So, you were trying to run away from your pain and anger, but I interrupted that flight.  You chose the only option remaining to you.”

“That’s an oversimplification, Jack.”

“Is it?”  Jack shrugged again.  “I’m a simple man, Daniel.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit, Jack.”

“Don’t look for complicated answers where there aren’t any,” Jack countered.  He got up, the bandages in place.  “Pancakes.  Sausage on the side, or bacon?”

“Bacon,” Daniel said.  Jack nodded and started making the pancakes.  He turned with a stack of three and found Daniel had buried his face in his hands.  He turned off the stove and sat down next to him, putting an arm around his shoulder.  “I hate this!” Daniel growled into his hands.  “I wish Grady had never written those damned letters.  I had a handle on all of this before that.”

“It will get better, Daniel.  Setbacks happen, but it will get better.”

“That’s hard to imagine right now,” Daniel said.

“Believe me, I know.  It took me a long time to get over what happened to me.  Public showers were not easy.”

“God, Jack, I can’t imagine . . .”  Daniel trailed off.

“Just thank your stars you can’t,” Jack said.  “But don’t start that thing about whose experience was worse again.  They were different.  I didn’t know those men, I didn’t trust them, and I’d never seen any of them before.”

Daniel shook his head.  “Are the guys who attacked you dead?” he asked.

Jack pursed his lips.  “All but one of them, and he’s beyond my reach.  High security prisons are very hard to assassinate people in.”

“I’ll bet,” Daniel said.  Tears rose up and overflowed again, and the other man started scrubbing at his eyes.  “I wish I could stop this, damnit!”

“I have it on good authority that tears are good for you.”

“They make your eyes ache, they stuff up your sinuses, and they give you a headache,” Daniel said sourly.  “By what definition is any of that good for you?”

“Daniel, don’t look only at the negative.”

“I’m failing to see a positive aspect to crying,” Daniel said, wiping his eyes angrily.  “God, I’m sorry.  How badly did I hurt you?”  He turned as if to examine Jack’s torso and arms for injuries.

Jack fended him off, and said, “You didn’t hurt me.”

Frustrated, Daniel glared at him.  “Don’t even claim that.  I hit you, more than once.”

“And I’m glad to be able to say that your training hasn’t gone for nothing, but you only really hit me once, and I’ll recover.”

“Why are you minimizing this, Jack?  I blew up all over you, someone who’s done nothing but support me since the beginning of this crap.  It’s a hell of a repayment.”

“To express that kind of trust?  Why yes, it is.”

Daniel opened his mouth, but no words came out.  Finally he managed a “Huh?”

“Daniel, you opened yourself up completely and let it all out.  I don’t think you would have done that for anyone else.  Everyone else would have gotten the Daniel Jackson Repression Special, where you sublimate your emotions till you don’t know what they are or where to find them.  Being able to explode like that in front of me was an expression of trust that I could accept the intensity, and that it wouldn’t change our friendship.”  Daniel was staring at him.  “Frankly, it relieves my mind.  I thought I’d lost your trust completely after that whole rogue NID sting operation.”

Daniel’s head turned as if drawn towards the living room, and his eyes darkened a little.  “That was horrific.  You came damned close.  I let you in and . . . if it hadn’t turned out to be a sting, I think I would have shut down permanently.”

Jack felt all the color drain out of his face.  He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “You want to hit me again?” he asked.  “I’ll hold still for you.”

“Don’t be stupid, Jack, you had reasons.  Good ones, for most of it.”

Jack shook his head.  “I wish it hadn’t happened.”

“You and me both, Jack,” Daniel said.  They sat quietly for a moment, then Daniel tilted his head.  “It’s a good thing it didn’t take very long,” he commented.  “I was giving serious thought to leaving the SGC.”  Jack blinked in alarm.  Daniel?  Leave?  He’d have come back to find his unit gutted.  “I haven’t found Sha’re’s son yet, but with Makepeace commanding the team, I knew that would never be a priority, and I wasn’t altogether certain that I wanted Makepeace involved in that search anyway.”

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t leave,” Jack said.

Daniel’s response was a long time in coming, giving Jack plenty of time to worry what he was thinking about.  Did he think that he would have been safe from Grady if he’d left?  Was he regretting something?  “Me too,” Daniel said finally.  “I would have hated letting someone like Makepeace drive me out.  And it’s not like Grady couldn’t have found me somewhere else, especially if he’s as obsessed as you say.”

Jack didn’t want to agree, but he wasn’t going to lie.  “True,” he said.

Suddenly, Daniel stiffened, then a moment later he began to tremble like a leaf all over.  “Sam told me . . . she said you were the one who initiated the search.  She said that no one had even noticed there was a problem till you got back.  If you’d been gone till Monday . . .”

“I would have called,” Jack said.  “I would have come back because you wouldn’t have been home or at the mountain on Saturday evening when I called.”

“I know,” Daniel said, and Jack wondered what was causing this reaction.  “But if he’d done this while you were gone . . .”

Squeezing his shoulders, Jack tried to reassure him.  “Daniel, I would have come back!”

Daniel shook his head, looking very frustrated.  “To Edora, Jack!  You were gone three months!”

Jack stared at him, horrified.  SG-1 had been on stand down, Carter and Teal’c had been focused on retrieving him . . .  If Daniel had vanished for a weekend, who would have been the wiser?  And he could just see Daniel deciding not to bother anyone with it, not wanting to distract them from the search for a way to retrieve Jack.

“It didn’t happen,” Jack reassured him.  “It’s okay.”  And if Grady had done it while Jack was undercover, while Daniel didn’t trust him or anyone else, what would the archeologist have done?  Jack shuddered at the thought.

Daniel’s tremors gradually eased, and he let out a self-deprecating snort.  “He would hardly have had an opportunity,” he said.  “I was on base nearly every waking moment, doing everything I could to help Sam, working on translations, driving people to distraction.  I only went home when Janet chased me out.”

Jack gave his shoulders a squeeze.  “Well, I’m back and not going away again.  Grady is behind a steel door and not coming out.”  Daniel smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.  “You’re going to be okay,” Jack said.  To the dubious look his friend gave him, he replied, “In time.  In time, this will be a rotten memory that only comes up on special occasions.”

Daniel’s shoulders started to shake again, and he buried his face in his hands.  Jack got a little worried till he looked up and it became clear that he was laughing.  “You have the most singular way of looking at the world, Jack!” he exclaimed through the laughter.

“Thank you,” Jack said, standing up again.  “I think.”  Quirking an eyebrow at the archeologist, still laughing, he went back to the stove and turned the burner on.  “Well, if we’re going to eat, I’d better get back to work.”

“Are you sure we can’t go to work this morning?” Daniel asked after a moment.

Jack turned around.  “How are you feeling?”  The laughter had subsided, leaving a very subdued and depressed man behind.  Daniel shrugged, but he bit his lip.  Jack shook his head and turned back to the stove.  “I’ve been wanting a day off anyway,” he said.

“I have work to do,” Daniel protested.

“So it will wait a day.”

“Jack!”

He turned around.  “Look, Daniel, if something comes up that has to be done immediately, Hammond will call and we will go in.  Otherwise, it can wait.”

Daniel let out a deep sigh, but he didn’t say anything else.  Then there was a knock at the door.  Jack turned to go but Daniel shook his head.  “I’ll get it.”

“It’s probably Teal’c,” Jack said.


	85. Chapter 85

He’d made an ass of himself and now Jack was afraid he was going to do it again.  That much was obvious.  Daniel walked out into the entrance hall and reached for the doorknob, then paused, staring at it.  He gulped, remembering the scene that had played out in that very spot the night before.  Jack was too forgiving.

The very precise knock came again, mercifully interrupting his train of thought, and Daniel opened the door to Teal’c.  A car pulled away from the curb as the door opened.  Daniel wondered what their instructions had been if the door hadn’t opened.  He stepped back and the Jaffa came inside, shutting the door behind him.

“Are you well, DanielJackson?” he asked, gazing down with open concern into Daniel’s face.

This was too much.  He could hold it together if he didn’t have anyone asking him questions like that, but Teal’c’s clear solicitude undid him.  Tears that he had barely been aware of suppressing rushed to the surface and he started to turn away.

To his complete astonishment, Teal’c pulled him into a tight hug.  The Jaffa said nothing, just offered wordless comfort.  Daniel started initially to pull away, but Teal’c gently held him, and he relaxed into the warmth his friend was offering.  Tears flowed freely, wetting Teal’c’s civilian shirt.  He had no idea how long they stayed in that position, but he felt cradled in unjudgmental sympathy.  From Teal’c he got no sense of pity, which made sympathy possible to accept.

“Pancakes are getting . . . cold.”  Jack started out sounding chipper and too cheerful, but his voice faded partway through, when he’d seen his teammates, Daniel guessed.  “Um . . . sorry.”

Daniel pulled away, his stomach gurgling.  “No, it’s fine,” he said.  He looked up at Teal’c.  “Thank you.”

The Jaffa nodded formally and they all headed into the kitchen.  Jack had made a small mountain of pancakes and sausages that was greatly reduced as they all attacked it.  Sitting back, replete, Daniel sighed.  He hadn’t realized until Teal’c came in just how close to the surface his emotions were.  The first person who asked him how he was might set him off into a crying jag, and he had to admit that wasn’t something he was eager to experience on base.

“I wish to understand what will happen to those two sholtak,” Teal’c said with his accustomed candor and calm.

Jack knit his eyebrows and glanced over at Daniel.  “Do I really want to know what that meant?”

Daniel reflected on the various shades of meaning to the insult and shook his head.  “I don’t think so,” he said.

“My question stands,” Teal’c said with a shade of impatience.

“Right,” Jack said.  Daniel looked down at his hands.  “Well, they’re going to put them in little rooms and leave them there for the rest of their lives.”

“It does not seem sufficient.  They should be beaten and severely damaged.  Their eyes should be put out, their bodies emasculated, and their names erased from the rolls of humanity.”

Daniel blinked at the ferocity of this.

“Works for me,” said Jack cheerfully, and Daniel gave him a sidelong glance.

“I’ll just be glad never to see them again,” he said after a moment.  “Little rooms for the rest of their lives with nothing to do is good enough.”

“I disagree.  Your constitution limits the available punishments far too severely in my mind,” Teal’c said.  “But I shall be satisfied if you are satisfied.”

Daniel smiled faintly.  “I just wish I could stop thinking about it.  I don’t ever want to receive another letter from him, I don’t care what it says.  Is there a way that could be arranged?”

“I could break his hands,” Teal’c suggested.

More practically, Jack said, “I’ll make sure that goes into his records, Daniel.”

“Thanks.”  Tears were welling towards the surface again and he put his head down on his folded arms.  “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Do what?” Jack asked.

Still speaking into the muffling safety of his arms, he said, “I don’t know how to deal with people trying to help me deal with things.”

“Have we not been of help to you in the past?” Teal’c asked, sounding puzzled.  Daniel just groaned.

Jack spoke, and his words caused Daniel to want to bury his head deeper.  “He hasn’t always been very forthcoming about his troubles.”

“I do not understand,” Teal’c said, putting a hand on Daniel’s back.  “How can we help you if we do not know what troubles you?”  Daniel groaned again.  “Are you in pain, DanielJackson?

“I should handle my own problems, Teal’c,” Daniel said in a tense voice, still not looking up.

“That is foolish, DanielJackson,” the Jaffa said.  “You and Major Carter and O’Neill have helped me through my troubles on more than one occasion.  Is that not what friends are for?”

“He’s just not very good at letting people help him,” Jack said.

Daniel sat up.  “I ask for help with the things I can’t handle on my own,” he said.  “The rest of it I just deal with as best I can.”

Jack gave him a serious look.  “Daniel, I don’t know who has screwed you over in the past, but we’re not them.  We want to be here for you, but you have to meet us halfway.”

Daniel bit his lip.  “I don’t talk about these things much, you know that, Jack.”

“You should speak of it more,” Teal’c said, and Daniel gave him a disbelieving look.

“I don’t hear you advertising your problems,” he said.  “Or you,” he added turning to Jack.

Teal’c tilted his head.  “I speak of it when I am troubled,” he said.  “I do not find myself troubled very frequently.”

Daniel turned to Jack, who shrugged.  “I share,” he said defensively.

“When?” Daniel demanded.

“I do!”  Jack looked to Teal’c for confirmation, but the Jaffa remained silent.  “I do,” Jack said again.  Daniel rolled his eyes, and Jack looked vaguely hurt.  “I tell you lots of stuff that I don’t tell anyone else.”

Daniel flushed, but before he could express his dismay at having caused Jack pain, Teal’c raised a single eyebrow.  “Indeed?” he said.

Jack turned to him and gaped for a moment, then he smiled.  “People talk to Daniel, you know?”

Teal’c nodded his agreement gravely.

“I’m sorry, Jack, I didn’t mean that quite how it sounded,” Daniel said.

“I know,” Jack said.  “But you should let us help you when things come up.”

“Well, I’m letting you help now, aren’t I?” Daniel asked, feeling very much the center of attention with both of them looking at him.

“Yes, you are,” Jack said, standing up.  “And now, I’m going to leave you two.  I need to catch a bit of shuteye.”

Daniel looked over at him suspiciously.  “Did you get any sleep last night at all?”

Jack shrugged.  “I was really into my book, so I stayed up all night reading.”  Narrowing his eyes, Daniel started to reply, but Jack forestalled him.  “So now I’m really tired.  I’ll be down in a while.”  He tousled Daniel’s hair exactly as if he were a kid and went out of the kitchen.

Glaring after him, Daniel smoothed his hair and turned to Teal’c.  “You want to play video games?” he suggested.  “I’ve found that blowing things up makes me feel better, even if they’re virtual things.”

“That sounds most agreeable,” Teal’c said.

* * *

Jack climbed the stairs and pulled out his cell phone to call the mountain.  He didn’t want to use the house phone in case Daniel decided to call someone.  He got through to Hammond, who greeted him with, “How’s Dr. Jackson?”

“He’s awake now, and seeming relatively in control,” Jack said.  “He’s very thin skinned, though.  I left him downstairs with Teal’c.  I think they’re playing video games that involve blowing things up.”

“Sounds very cathartic,” the general observed.  “Dr. Lisle is ready to come if you still want her.”

“I think we’d better give Daniel a little more space.  I was afraid he was going to wake up in the same state he went to sleep in, or still be as explosive as he was last night.”

“What state did he go to sleep in?”

Jack shrugged.  “Hard to describe.  He was like a zombie.  It was creepy, really, he was so out of it.  I was afraid he was going to be like that today, but he’s not.  Just kind of . . . fragile.”

“Do you think he should come in tomorrow?”

“I don’t know yet.  It’s hard to judge.  Let’s see how he is the rest of today.”

“All right, then.  Call me this evening.  I should be at home.”

“Of course, sir.”

“And would you like to at least talk with Dr. Lisle, to get her input?”

Jack nodded.  “Probably.  But one thing first.  I promised Daniel that if there was an emergency he was needed for, you would call him in.  Please follow through on that.  I think he needs to feel he’s able to do his job, and I think he would pull it together in an emergency.”

“I don’t want to risk his mental health, colonel,” Hammond said, sounding anxious.  “I wouldn’t want to stress him too much.  I can’t express how distressed I am that a member of my command attacked him.  I don’t want to be the cause of any further harm.”

Jack knit his brows.  He saw Hammond’s reasoning, but he knew Daniel.  “How’s this, sir?  I’ll explain the situation to Harry and we’ll both abide by her judgment.”

“I can agree to that.  I’ll transfer you to her.”

Jack waited through a couple of clicks and then Harry’s voice came over the phone.  “Hello, Jack, I understand you had an exciting night.”

“A bit,” Jack said.  “You’ve seen the letters?”

“I have.”

“Daniel’s only seen the one for him, but I told him about mine.”

“I see.  What spurred the explosion?”

“It seems to have been Grady’s request that I take up where he left off.”

“I can understand why Daniel would find that distressing.  What did he say?”

“It was a massive outpouring of self-hatred,” Jack said.  “He asked me to . . . carry out Grady’s request, he called himself soiled and ruined, called himself names.  He threatened to go out and find someone to . . . do what I was refusing to do.”  Jack bit his lip.  “It was pretty dreadful.”

“It sounds like it.  How are you feeling?”

“Pretty freaked, actually,” Jack admitted.  “But I’m kind of focused on Daniel right now.  It was . . . he was very loud, very angry, he got a little violent.”

“How violent?” she asked.

“He kept knocking my hands away, and when I tried to hold onto him to keep him from leaving the house, he punched me pretty hard on the shoulder.”

“Nothing more?” she asked.  “He only tried to get away from you?”

“Right,” Jack said.  “He didn’t attack me, if that’s what you mean.  He got really angry that I wouldn’t . . . that I wouldn’t.  And that’s when he started the self-hatred stuff.”

“Then I wouldn’t worry about the violence.”

“I wasn’t,” Jack said.  “What I was really worried about was the zombie like state he took on afterwards.  I caught him, took him down to the floor and held him, and he started crying.  When he  stopped, he was expressionless, he didn’t say or do anything without being prompted.  It was pretty bizarre.”

“Is he himself this morning?” she asked.

“Pretty much.  Thin skinned, very apologetic, worried that I was angry with him, but largely himself.  Worried about not coming into work.”

“That sounds fairly normal,” she said judiciously.  “What’s he doing now?”

“I left him with Teal’c, and I think they were going to go play video games.”

“I wouldn’t worry, then.  I would keep him at home tomorrow as well, though.  Give him some time to get himself back together again.  An explosion was coming, and I’m just glad it happened in a safe place.”

“Yeah,” Jack said.  “Well, I told him that if there was an emergency that required his attention on base that Hammond would call him in.  Hammond’s worried that might damage him, so we’ve agreed to act based on your judgment.”

“What do you think, Jack?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t have told Daniel that if I hadn’t thought he could handle it,” Jack said.  “I know Daniel, he’ll pull it together if there’s need.  I just wouldn’t want it to be an extended problem that would give him time to suppress things too much.”

She paused for a few moments.  “We need to come up with some system that doesn’t put all of our eggs on Daniel’s shoulders,” she said.  “For now, though, I think that will have to do.  I’ll tell General Hammond that if there’s a problem that can be solved from the base that Daniel is needed for, he should be called in.  If there’s a problem that requires offworld travel, I’ll tell him he’ll have to find some other solution.”

“All right,” Jack said, reflecting that if serious circumstances arose again, Hammond would have to call him in, regardless of what was required.  The likelihood of that coming up in the next four days was pretty slim, though.  “Daniel will have to be satisfied with that.”

“Yes, he will.  And I’ll come out tomorrow unless you feel desperate need of me today.  Give me a call if that comes up.”

“Right.”  Jack yawned.  “And now I’m going to go to bed.  No sleep for the wicked.”

“Sweet dreams,” she said and he heard the click as she hung up.

He stood up and went to the bathroom.  Stiffness had taken over his limbs and joints.  Spending the night sitting on the floor in Daniel’s room had not done his aging body any good.  Add in the bruises he knew he had to have from the tussle, and he was feeling every minute of his age.

Standing in front of the mirror, he took off his shirt.  There was a beautiful Technicolor bruise coming in on his shoulder where Daniel had hit him.  Yes, that training had paid off.  This was, perhaps, not the method Jack would have chosen to discover that fact, but it was good to know nonetheless.  A little nervously, he turned around to look at his back.  He had struck the doorframe all the way up and down his back and he had a feeling . . .

There was a straight line of blue bruising at a slight diagonal down his back from between his shoulder blades and disappearing beneath his waistline.  He dropped his pants, morbidly curious, and saw that the bruise extended down his right buttock.  This was definitely something Daniel didn’t need to know about.

He took a quick shower then pulled on a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt.  He usually skipped the shirt, but if Daniel came in, he didn’t want him to see the damage.  Then he went to his room and collapsed.


	86. Chapter 86

With Jack sleeping, Daniel kept the volume on the video game down, not only so they didn’t disturb him, but so that if he had an problems, any noise he might make wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the explosions on the screen.

This proved to be prescient.  The Jaffa was having trouble wrapping his mind around the surreal and fantastic nature of the fantasy martial arts fighting game that he and Daniel were playing, and as a result the archeologist was soundly kicking Teal’c’s butt when cries from upstairs made them both jump.

Daniel was on his feet instantly, running up the stairs to Jack’s room.  Teal’c came close behind him, but Daniel paid him no heed.  Jack was lying in bed, yelling incoherently in his nightmare.  “Jack!” Daniel called.  “Jack!”

He sat up suddenly, eyes wide and staring, breath coming in sharp gasps.  Looking up at Daniel, he blinked.  Now that Jack was awake, Daniel sat down on the edge of the bed.  “It’s okay, Jack, it was a dream.”

“God, Daniel!” Jack gasped out, grabbing him in a hard hug.  “You scared me to death.  Don’t do that!”

“I’m sorry, Jack.  It didn’t happen, whatever it was.  It was only a dream.”  He returned the hug and rubbed Jack’s back.  “It’s okay.  I’m okay.  Everything’s okay.”  He realized abruptly that Jack was crying on his shoulder, and redoubled his reassurances, rocking the other man, who kept muttering things about Daniel not doing something.  Whatever this dream had been, it had hit him hard.

Finally, his shaking eased and the tears stopped.  Daniel kept holding him until he pulled away, and then Daniel sat back.  “So, what happened?”

Jack stared at him.  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Jack --” Daniel started, but the colonel shook his head.

“I really, really don’t want to talk about it.”

“O’Neill,” Teal’c said, startling them both.  Daniel had forgotten the Jaffa was there, and Jack . . . Jack was staring up at him as if stunned.  Teal’c walked forward and went down on his knees beside the bed.  “O’Neill, you must tell us what has so disturbed you.  We are agreed, are we not, that we should share what troubles us?”

Jack took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “Teal’c, I --”  He closed his mouth and looked thoughtful.  “I dreamed that I dozed off last night while Daniel was asleep in his room.  It was one of those incredibly real dreams,” he added turning to Daniel, who nodded.  “It felt exactly as if I’d dreamed this morning while I was sleeping in your room.  When I looked, though, you had gone.  You’d slipped out while I was asleep.  I tracked you by that instinct that only turns up in dreams to a bar where . . .”  He shook his head, and gulped.  “It was closed, and as I walked around the place trying to figure out a way in, because I was sure you were there, I stumbled over you, broken and bloody in the alley, dead, but still warm.”

Daniel stared at him, appalled.  “God, Jack, I’m sorry -- I didn’t mean to do that to you -- I can’t believe how selfish --”

Jack grabbed his arms and met his eyes fiercely.  “You didn’t do anything to me, Daniel!” he said firmly.  “This isn’t your fault.”

“I went nuts last night!” Daniel cried.  “You would never have thought of that if I hadn’t said all those things.  It is my --”

Jack shook him.  “It’s not your fault, Daniel.  Last night was not your fault!  It’s just part of healing.”

“I shouldn’t be causing you pain by my healing,” Daniel said.

“You think I never lost it on Sarah?” Jack asked.

Daniel rolled his eyes.  “I’m not your wife, Jack,” he said sarcastically.  “And you’re not my wife.”  The thought of Sha’re, and how she would have reacted to this invaded Daniel’s mind suddenly, and tears flowed down his cheeks before he could make an effort to control them.

“Oh, damn,” Jack said and pulled him back into a hug.  “I didn’t mean to bring that up.”

Daniel shook his head and tried to pull away.  “I’m fine,” he growled.

“You are not,” Teal’c said.  “But you will be.”  He reached out his arms and hugged them both from the side.  It was a nice moment, but Daniel couldn’t help wondering where Sam was.

“What’s happened?” exclaimed a voice from the doorway.

Jack nearly jumped out of his skin, and Daniel looked up over Teal’c’s shoulder to see Sam standing in the doorway, eyes wide with shock and worry.  “I’m fine!” Jack exclaimed, scrambling away.

Teal’c drew back and Daniel got off the bed, walking over to her.  “Sam, I’m glad you’re here,” he said, giving her a hug.

She returned it with interest, then drew back and touched his face.  “You’ve been crying,” she said.  Glancing over at Jack, she spoke in tones of amazement.  “So have you, sir.”

“I have not,” Jack said, rising with dignity on the other side of the bed.

“You have, O’Neill,” Teal’c said, knitting his eyebrows.  “No benefit may be gained by telling untruths.”

Daniel turned and looked very seriously into Sam’s confused eyes.  “Every now and then, Jack remembers that you’re a girl, and he doesn’t like to cry in front of girls.”

“I see,” she said, smiling slightly.

“I, on the other hand, make no differentiation.  I don’t like to cry in front of anybody.”

“Oh, like I do,” Jack protested.  “I don’t like to cry in front of anybody either.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow.  “But you will cry in front of me, and admit to it.  Sam shows up and suddenly --”

“Could we not talk about crying?” Jack demanded.  “I mean, is there any particular reason that we _need_ to be talking about crying?”

Sam cleared her throat, looking uncomfortable but also amused.  “Why were you crying, sir?” she asked innocently.

Jack made a frustrated noise, and Teal’c turned to Sam.  “He had a bad dream.”

“Teal’c!” Jack exclaimed, sounding betrayed.

Daniel flushed.  “He was having a bad dream about me,” he said.  “Because of what I did last night.”

“What did you do last night?” she asked.

“I more or less attacked him,” he replied.

“You did not!” Jack growled.

“I hit you,” Daniel pointed out.  “Which reminds me . . .” he added, noticing suddenly that Jack, who typically only wore shorts to bed, was wearing a t-shirt.  Crossing swiftly to his friend, he reached for the shirt.

Jack backed away, putting his hands out.  “What are you doing?”

“I need to see what I did to you.”

“Don’t be an ass, Daniel, you don’t need to see anything.”

They went a few rounds until suddenly Teal’c took Jack by the arm while Sam took Daniel by the arm.  “Let’s go down to the living room and talk,” she said.  “I’m thinking there’s an awful lot going on here that some of us aren’t privy to.”

Feeling a little foolish, Daniel accompanied Sam down to the living room where he suffered himself to be sat down on the sofa beside her while Teal’c sat Jack down in a chair.  “All right,” Sam said.  “What happened here last night?  I have no idea, and it turns out Teal’c doesn’t know either.”

Daniel was sitting separate from Sam, having pulled away after they sat down.  Now he looked at his hands and cleared his throat.  He and Jack spoke at once.  “I threw a fit all over Jack,” he said.  He couldn’t hear Jack’s words.

Sam held up her hands.  “Okay, one of you at once,” she said.  “I heard what Daniel said.  Sir, what did you say?”

“Daniel needed to let of some steam,” he said.

“Steam?” Daniel exclaimed.  “I would hardly --”

“That’s all it was, Daniel.  You let out some pressure that had been building and that’s all.  Stop beating yourself up about it.”

“No, I guess I should really be beating you up about it!” Daniel exclaimed.  “Jack, I --”

Daniel was aware that Sam was trying to referee but he was so focused on Jack’s insanity that it took Teal’c’s bellow to stop him.  “Quiet!”

“Okay, I’m going to moderate this conversation,” Sam said in the silence that followed.  “No one talks unless I okay it.”

“Carter, I believe I’m in charge,” Jack said, straightening.  It was eerie how both Sam and Teal’c raised the same eyebrow at the same moment.  The combined intensity of it made Jack wince and withdraw his objection.

“All right, sir, would you _please_ tell us what happened yesterday?”

Daniel opened his mouth but she turned to him with a steely glint in her eyes and he shut up.

“Major Grady wrote two letters,” Jack said and Daniel hunched in on himself, humiliated anew by Grady’s assumption of authority over his sex life.  “And somehow they wound up in the general interoffice mail.  One was delivered to me, the other to Daniel.”

Sam turned and clucked at him, putting an arm around his shoulders.  He leaned against her, letting her comfort him.  “Go on, sir,” she said, stroking Daniel’s hair.

“In Daniel’s letter, he apologized for everything _but_ what he did to Daniel, declared his love, and suggested that Daniel needed to look elsewhere for the ‘help’ he supposedly needs.”  Daniel shook his head, recalling that.

“He doesn’t love me,” he said.  “Obsession is not love.”

“I know that, Daniel,” Jack said.  “I’m just describing the letter.”

“Go on, sir,” Sam said, squeezing Daniel’s shoulders.

“Well, the letter was designed to make Daniel feel guilty for not returning his feelings, I think.”  Teal’c looked quietly murderous.

“You forgot the part where he told me that I should seek the ‘help’ I need from you,” Daniel said.  Now that they weren’t arguing or talking over the top of each other, Sam seemed a little more tolerant of his insertions.

“Yeah, right,” Jack said.  Sam rubbed his back.  “My letter was . . . creepy as hell.  He told me he thought I needed to look inside myself ‘for the ability to disregard the arbitrary rules placed on us by society at large and the military in specific.’  Direct quote.”

“Wow,” Sam said.  “And he meant --”

“He has convinced himself that I’m in love with Daniel, and that’s why I interrupted his little tryst.  God knows what he’s basing this notion on, but the man’s half crazy anyway.”

“All right, so Grady sent a couple of malicious letters.  Go on.”

“Well, I didn’t tell Daniel about my letter until we got home and had dinner last night.  And then --”

“And then I went completely nuts all over him,” Daniel said.  “I -- I --”  He shook his head.  “I can’t believe I said those things to you.”

“It doesn’t matter what you said,” Jack replied.  “You let off some steam, which you needed to do.  The only thing that concerns me about what you said is the tone of self-hatred that ran through some of it.  You don’t really believe any of that, do you?”

Daniel shrugged.  “Of course not,” he said, more to himself than anyone else.

“Daniel, that wasn’t very convincing,” Sam commented.

“Not hardly,” Jack said.

He glared at them both half-heartedly.  “I don’t,” he said.  “I just . . . I know there are people who would think that, and I find the secrecy both reassuring and uncomfortable.  I don’t want to face everyone knowing what he did to me, but at the same time, I feel like I’m hiding because it’s somehow shameful to be attacked that way.”

“Would you rather everyone knew?” Jack asked, looking worried.

“God, no!”  The words burst out of him without the need for thought.  “No, it’s not that.  The people who already know are more than enough as it is.  I don’t want to be the focus of sympathy and pity.  Torture is one thing.  It’s almost heroic.  Being raped is sordid and nasty.”

“But it doesn’t change anything about who you are,” Jack said immediately.  “You aren’t soiled, you aren’t a toy, and his sordid behavior doesn’t reflect negatively on you.”

Sam made an upset and turned her head.  “Daniel, you don’t think -- you don’t blame yourself, do you?”

“Every rape victim wonders what they did that drew the rapist’s attention,” Daniel said.  “It’s a fact of life.  I’m not immune, but I don’t think it’s my fault, no.  I’m just disturbed that he could see in me what he evidently did.  What about me gave him that impression?  Does anybody else think of me that way?”

“None of us see what he saw,” Sam said.  “And we know you better than anybody, right?”

“Yes, but it’s not so much what people who know me well see that I’m thinking about.  It’s what people who don’t know me well see.”

“Of what importance is that?” Teal’c asked suddenly.

“People need to trust me, Teal’c,” Daniel said.  “I have to be able to work with any SG unit on base on a moment’s notice without barriers.  If people think I endanger my unit by making eyes at alien bastards like Rigar --”

“Daniel, no one thinks that!” Sam protested.

“Then why did Jack get rid of four officers in the last couple of months?  Don’t you think rumors went around about why they were canned?  Do you think I’m deaf?  Do you think there aren’t people who love bringing me gossip like that, just to see how I react?”

“Who?” Jack demanded.

Daniel rolled his eyes.  “You can’t go around firing everyone who’s obnoxious, Jack.  I can take care of myself!”

“That wasn’t about you, Daniel,” Jack said.  “I mean, I can see why it might look like it was, but it was about not having people at the SGC with that kind of attitude.  What Rigar did to you could have happened to anyone on a field team, and if it had happened to someone else and the same sorts of rumors had come up, I would have done the same thing.  I didn’t even make the decision -- it was Hammond’s decision, and his reasoning was the same.”

Daniel shook his head.  “Regardless, the point is that obviously some people do think of me that way, or you wouldn’t have needed to get rid of them.”  He gulped, then continued in a smaller voice.  “I mean, is that why Rigar tortured me like that in the first place?  Because I come across as some kind of . . .”  He didn’t know how to finish the sentence.

“No, Daniel,” Sam said firmly.  “Rigar saw you as a man with specialized knowledge, as a leader, and as someone he might be able to squeeze information out of.  Sexuality was not part of the equation.”

“I agree,” Jack said, and Teal’c nodded gravely.

“Then what about Hathor?” Daniel asked.  Jack winced

“What about her?” Teal’c asked, tilting his head.

Sam stared at him wide-eyed for a moment, then enlightenment dawned in her face.  “That bitch!” she burst out.

“Sam?” he said in confusion.  Hadn’t Jack already told them?

“Damn!  She’s already dead!” Sam growled.  “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I thought you knew,” he said.  “I mean, at the time I did, and since I told him recently, I thought Jack had told you.”

Teal’c blinked.  “Are you saying that they did _not_ know, DanielJackson?” he asked.

Daniel turned to Teal’c.  “No, I thought they did, but I was mistaken.”

“You knew?” Jack demanded of Teal’c.

“Of course,” Teal’c said.  “I assumed all knew.  It was evident from DanielJackson’s reaction, both while Hathor was here and afterwards.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Jack asked.

“I thought you knew.  I offered what comfort DanielJackson would accept and since no one spoke of it, I assumed that it was custom not to discuss such things here.”  He grimaced.  “I knew very little of your culture at that time, and very little of all of you personally.”  Jack nodded, looking pained.

“I still don’t understand why you guys didn’t get it from what she said to me when we were captured by her later,” Daniel said.

Sam blinked, and Jack looked puzzled.  “What did she say to you?” Sam said.  “I remember she spoke to you, and to the colonel, but there were so many things in my system and so much going on that I didn’t register much past what she said to me.”

“She reminded me of the ‘pleasure’ we shared in each other’s arms,” Daniel said, shuddering.  “Asked me if I remembered.”

Jack raised an eyebrow.  “What did you say?”

“That I tried not to.”

Jack nodded appreciatively.  “Good one, Daniel,” he said.

Daniel snorted.  “Thanks, Jack, I try.  Got to live up to your example.”  Jack shrugged self-deprecatingly.  “Wait,” Daniel said.  “Doesn’t that break the rules?  I’m not supposed to say anything to piss the Goa’ulds off.”

“No, you’re not, but --”

“Or is it okay, now that we’re looking back on it?”

“There’s that,” Jack said.  “And Hathor was a special case.”

“Glad to hear it.  I would hate to think I’d broken one of the all-important rules.”

Jack looked taken aback.  “Daniel, I --”

Raising his eyebrows, he gave his friend a questioning look.  “Jack?” he replied.  “Don’t go getting paranoid on me -- oh, wait.  Too late.”

“I’m not paranoid!” Jack protested.

“Who was it we had to wake out of a screaming nightmare?”

“I wasn’t screaming!”

“You were,” Daniel said.  “How do you suppose we knew you were having problems?”

“He was not screaming,” Teal’c put in.

“Okay, so he was yelling not screaming,” Daniel admitted.  “Still.”

“So, back to the subject,” Sam said.  “Daniel let off some steam.  How did he do this exactly, and where did the hitting come in?”

“I was angry,” Daniel said.  “And some part of me was terrified that Grady was right, that I was somehow calling all of it on myself.”  There was a chorus of denials from Sam and Jack, with Teal’c sounding a basso monosyllabic negative.  “Well, regardless, I got up and started demanding that Jack . . . that Jack . . .”  He couldn’t find the words.  It was odd for him not to be able to find words.

“He asked me to follow Grady’s instructions,” Jack said.  “I refused and he got really angry --”

“And abusive.  And I demanded to know what was wrong with me and . . . and I suggested I should go elsewhere to find . . . someone who would . . .”

“And that’s what I dreamed about,” Jack said.  “I dreamed that after I put Daniel to bed, I had fallen asleep instead of staying up with him and he’d gone out and gotten himself . . .”  Jack trailed off, clearly unable to finish.  He had his hand pressed to his eyes.

“He dreamed that he failed to protect DanielJackson and found him just after he had expired,” Teal’c finished concisely.  They all looked at him.

Sam looked around the group of them, eyebrows knit together.  “I don’t understand.”

“Someone had attacked him, Carter,” Jack said.  “Beaten him up as well as . . . other things.  And he was dead but still warm when I found him in the dream.  The blood was still fresh on his wounds.”

Daniel felt Sam shudder beside him.  “That would be pretty bad,” she said.  Her arm tightened around him pulling him a little closer.  It was good to have them all here, all around him.  If they’d all been here last night . . .

He shifted away from Sam.  “I hit Jack when he grabbed me to stop me from leaving.”

“I see,” she said, nodding, then her eyes widened.  “Wait, you tried to leave?” she asked, sounding appalled.  “You didn’t just talk about leaving?”

“No, Jack had to tackle me to keep me from going out the door, and he won’t let me see if he got hurt.”

“I’m sure he’s fine, Daniel.”  She looked over at Jack, though.  “I’m glad you managed to stop him, sir.”

“So am I,” he said seriously.  “More glad than you can know.”

“I don’t know how far I would actually have gone,” Daniel said into the silence that followed Jack’s remark.  “But I was really out of control.”  He felt his body starting to shake as he remembered the sheer intensity of last night’s outburst.  “It scared me.”  Sam wrapped both her arms around him and hugged tight.

“It scared me,” Jack replied.  As Daniel opened his mouth, he held up a hand.  “Don’t apologize.  You needed it, or you wouldn’t have done it.  You aren’t the sort of person who indulges in histrionics.  Hell, most of the time we have to guess when you’re upset.”  Daniel shrugged.  He still felt like an ass.

“So, is that everything?” Sam asked.  “Is that why you guys didn’t come in and why Teal’c came out?”

Jack shrugged.  “I needed to sleep, and I didn’t . . . I wasn’t sure . . .”

“You were afraid I’d do something stupid,” Daniel finished for him.

“Ill-advised,” Jack corrected.

“Desperate,” Daniel replied.

“I’m not going to play word games,” Jack said.  “I just called Hammond to get some help, and he said that Carter was working on a . . .”  He blinked and looked over at Sam.  “What happened to that critical project you were working on?”

“I finished it,” she said.  “When word came that you and Daniel were staying home and that Teal’c had gone out to see you, I put a move on and got it done so I could take the afternoon off.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re all here,” Daniel said.  “Outside of Abydos, you’re the only family I’ve got.”  He was looking down at his hands as he spoke.  As the silence that followed his statement lengthened, he shrugged.  “I hope it doesn’t bother you that I feel that way.”

Jack sputtered.  “Bother us?  Bother us!  Of course it doesn’t bother us, Daniel!”

“Hardly!” Sam exclaimed.

“Indeed, it does not, DanielJackson.”

He looked up, startled.  “I didn’t want to presume too much.  I mean --”

“Presume away!” Jack said.

“God, Daniel, who did this to you?” Sam cried.


	87. Chapter 87

Jack watched Daniel withdraw into himself as Carter asked the question he’d asked so many times with the same result.  The archeologist wrapped his arms around his torso and said, “No one, Sam.  I don’t know what you mean.”

“It does not matter,” Teal’c said instantly.  “We are your family if you will have us, DanielJackson.”  Daniel smiled, but he still looked uneasy.

Carter sensed she’d put her foot in it, but she didn’t give up.  Like a good soldier, she just changed tactics.  “Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I haven’t had lunch.”

“We did not think of food while we played,” Teal’c said, gesturing at the game where the two combatants still stood, motionless, awaiting commands.  “And O’Neill has been asleep.”

“Then we need food,” Carter said.  “I vote we go to a hamburger joint.”

“I second that motion,” Jack declared, and Daniel nodded, grinning faintly.

“Why would ground meat have a joint?” Teal’c asked.  “There are no bones.”

Daniel commenced explaining the idiom, but though he was clearly in full lecture mode, Jack could see that he was not at all sure of himself as they headed toward the door.  He’d have to keep an eye on the archeologist’s mood.  “Whose car are we taking?” he asked.

“Well, if you and Daniel want to squeeze into the back, we could go in mine,” Carter said.

Jack eyed Daniel, still talking to Teal’c, then said, “I don’t supposewe could fit four across in my truck.”

“No, sir,” Carter said.  “I guess we’ll have to take two vehicles.”  She also looked at Teal’c and Daniel.  “Why don’t they go with you and I’ll meet you there?” she suggested.

“No!” Daniel exclaimed instantly.  “Teal’c and I can ride in the back of the truck.”

“Are you sure?”  Daniel nodded, and Jack turned to Teal’c.  “You up for that, T?”  The Jaffa solemnly inclined his head and vaulted into the back of the truck.  Jack walked to the back to let the tailgate down, but Daniel just climbed over.  Jack made sure the tailgate was closed securely then climbed into the front seat next to Carter.

He could hear Teal’c and Daniel talking until he revved up the engine.  As they pulled out of the drive, Carter said, “I didn’t mean to embarrass you sir.”

“I was being a dork, Carter,” Jack said.  “You didn’t embarrass me.”

She nodded and they drove in silence for a moment, then she turned and glanced out the window at the pair in the bed.  “How bad was it?” she asked.

“Bad,” he said.  “He was less violent than he seems to think, but he was . . .”  Jack shook his head.  “He kept saying these awful things about himself, and demanding that I . . . demanding to know why I wouldn’t.  Grady got under his skin in ways I didn’t even realize.”

“I don’t know if any of us can imagine what it must feel like to be raped,” she said, shaking her head.

He paused a moment, considering.  “Actually, Carter, I can.”

Her eyes widened with realization.  Then, because she was Carter, she started babbling.  “I . . . I wasn’t . . . I didn’t mean . . . God, sir, I can’t imagine . . .”

He shook his head.  “It’s okay, Carter,” he said reassuringly.  “I’m not upset.  It was fifteen years ago, and what happened to me was very different from what happened to Daniel.  It was considerably less personal, for one thing.  But it hasn’t been helping with my nightmares.”

“No, I suppose not.”  She blinked a few times, turning to face front.  She was silent for a moment.  “So I suppose I shouldn’t ask you what happened?”

Jack considered for a moment, then shrugged.  “I was in prison on a covert op, and . . . well, they cornered me where I couldn’t get away.  It wasn’t fun, and I was stuck there for a while.”  He glanced over at her, seeing her absorb the implications of ‘they.’  “The situations are different enough that it’s not hitting me as hard as it might, but it has its moments.”

“I’ll bet,” she said.

He let her digest the information for several minutes, then said, “So, you okay?”

“What?”

“You going to be able to put a good game face on for Daniel?”

She opened her mouth, seeming startled.  After a moment, she cleared her throat.  “How much does he know?”

“About as much as you do,” he replied.  “Maybe a little more.  He’s the one who’s been waking me up out of those nightmares.”

Her brows raised.  “I see.”

“According to Harry, it’s good for him.  Him seeing that I’m still having problems makes it okay for him to have problems, or something like that.  Anyway, I know he feels better now that the nightmare game isn’t all one-sided.”

“I guess I can understand that.”

She sat quietly for a few moments more, but Jack didn’t have time to let her think much longer.  “Carter, we’re going to be at Harvey’s in about two minutes.  Are you going to be okay with this by then?”

“Should I be?” she asked, sounding more than a little pissed.  “Should I be okay with the fact that two men I care about have been raped?”

“Carter, I mean can you act like you’re not upset when we get into the restaurant?”

“Sure,” she said, smiling bleakly.  “I’ll manage.”

And to her credit, she did.  Daniel didn’t even seem to notice a change in her manner, and Jack could barely see any signs of it.

They ate greasy french fries, hamburgers dripping with mayo and catsup, and drank thick chocolate shakes.  Jack introduced Teal’c to the joys of pinball, and Daniel played a video game that involved blowing up large numbers of space ships.  Jack could only imagine the faces he put on the virtual people inside them.

In general, they had a very silly, very good time.  Daniel was laughing as they left Harvey’s.  He and Carter climbed into the back and Jack got into the cab with Teal’c.  He spent the drive back explaining the importance of pinball in an adolescence that took place before the advent of video games.  Teal’c listened with a small smile, and Jack wondered what he was thinking.

When they reached the house, Jack went around to the back of the truck and stopped in surprise.  Sam had an arm around Daniel who had his hands over his face.  “What -- what happened?”

“We were talking and then he just started crying,” Carter said, seeming bewildered.  “I don’t know what it was.”

Jack stood by the side of the truck and reached over, touching Daniel’s arm.  “Come on, Daniel, let’s go inside.”  It took a bit of tugging, but they got him moving, down off the truck and towards the house.  Teal’c took the keys and went ahead to open the door.  Daniel drew away from them as they came through the door and went straight upstairs.  Jack followed until he saw the bathroom door close, then he headed back down again.

“He’s in the bathroom,” he said.

“I don’t understand what happened,” Carter said plaintively.  “He was fine and then tears just started streaming down his face.”

Jack sighed and sank onto a step.  “Ups and downs happen,” he said glumly.  “He was way up for a while there, so now he’s way down.  It will pass.”

“Do you really think that is all it is, O’Neill?”

“I do,” Jack said, hoping he was right.  Hoping that Daniel was just washing his face and pulling himself together in the bathroom, he stood up again and headed down into the living room.  “We left the game on,” he said.  “Who was who?”

“DanielJackson was player one,” Teal’c said.

Jack looked at the points, comparing them.  “So, he was winning, hmm?”

“The game makes no logical sense,” Teal’c replied.  “Things that are not physically possible are permitted, and there is magic.”  He looked frankly disgusted.  Then he tilted his head.  “DanielJackson is a superb opponent, however.  He was using my disorientation against me most effectively.”

“I would have thought Daniel would be more fair than that,” Carter said, but Teal’c raised an eyebrow.

“It is simulated battle, Major Carter.  If one behaves foolishly in simulated battle, then one is quite likely to behave foolishly in real battle.”  Carter nodded dubiously.  “And real battles are never fair.”

Jack glanced towards the stairs, a little on edge.  Resolutely, he turned back.  “So, what do we want to do this evening?”

“I thought maybe we could play Trivial Pursuit,” Carter said, and he raised an eyebrow.  “We all have our strengths and weaknesses,” she pointed out.  “It’ll be fun.”

“It’s not really fair to Teal’c,” Jack ventured.

“I should like to make the attempt,” the Jaffa said.  “If nothing else, I will learn more about your world and culture as the answers are read.”

“This is true,” Jack said, running out of objections.  “Let me see if I can find it.”

“It’s right here,” Carter said, reaching out and pulling it off the shelf.  “If you don’t want to play, sir, that’s fine.”

“Did I say I didn’t want to play?” Jack asked.  “Anyone want something to drink?”

“Sure, I’ll have a beer,” Carter said.

“I am fine.”

Jack nodded and went into the kitchen to grab a couple of beers.  As he started to shut the fridge door, Daniel came in.  His eyes were slightly puffy and his nose was a little red.  “Hey,” Jack said.

“Hey,” Daniel said, his voice nasal with congestion.  “Grab me a mineral water, would you?” he asked.

“You okay?” Jack asked quietly, picking up a mineral water.

“Been better,” Daniel said.  “But I’ve been worse, too.”  He took his drink.  “Sorry about that, I don’t know what happened.”

“Nothing to apologize for, Daniel.  It happens.  It’s perfectly normal and it will pass.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.  “You know, I’m beginning to feel emotionally constipated . . . it will pass . . .”  He snorted.  “Is there an emotional laxative?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Jack said bemusedly.  “We’re going to play Trivial Pursuit.  You want to join us?”

Daniel raised an eyebrow.  “What would you do if I said no and went up to my room to sulk in privacy?”

“Do you really want to find out?” Jack asked.

Daniel didn’t respond in words.  He just turned towards the living room and went downstairs to sit down by Carter.  Jack followed him, handed Carter her beer and settled down.  “I’ll be green,” he announced.

“I will be pink,” Teal’c said, fishing out the relevant piece.

“Now, Teal’c, if you want to learn more about our culture, you’ve got to learn that men just don’t choose pink.”

Teal’c tilted his head.  “Major Carter said that men who are comfortable with their masculinity are not intimidated by pink.”

“Or yellow,” Carter said.  Jack raised an eyebrow at her.

“Why would anyone be intimidated by yellow?” Daniel asked, picking up the yellow piece and looking at it curiously before he placed it in the center of the board.

“You’re not, Daniel,” Carter said, smiling.  “You’re a real man.”

Daniel’s face was a comic study in bewilderment.  “Thanks.  I think something just went over my head.  Jack?”

He shrugged.  “Don’t look at me,” he said.  “I haven’t got a map.”

“Is there a map?” Daniel asked, eyes wide.

“I do not believe so,” Teal’c replied.  “But one may always ask for directions.”

Jack glanced over at Carter who had one of those ‘women are smarter’ smiles on her face.  If Fraiser had been here, they’d be exchanging superior looks about now.  Women.

The game didn’t go how Jack would have predicted it.  They all had their fields.  He was strong in Entertainment, Sports & Leisure, Geography and some Science & Nature.  Daniel excelled in History, Geography, Arts & Literature and some Science and Nature.  Carter was Science & Nature girl, with Geography coming in a close second.  The others were all about average for her.  However, Teal’c blew them all away on Entertainment.  Most of the questions he missed had to do with the sorts of commonplace cultural phenomena that people don’t think to talk or write about except in trivia games.  Fads, though, he had down.  He didn’t do half bad in History or Arts & Literature, or Sports for that matter.  Jack thought maybe Teal’c had been watching a little too much cable.

Teal’c and Daniel wound up in the center, going back and forth till finally Teal’c answered a question right and the game was over.  Jack looked down at his collection of four pie pieces and didn’t feel too badly about it, given that the average IQ in this room dropped by about thirty points when he walked in.

“So, what do you all want on your pizzas?” Carter asked.  “My treat.”

They wrangled over Hawaiian vs. pesto and artichoke heart vs. combination and finally settled on three pizzas.  Carter made the call in the kitchen while Teal’c headed to the little Jaffa’s room.  Daniel wandered over to Jack’s video collection, his back firmly to the room.  It seemed as if he didn’t want to talk.  Jack decided to wait until after the others had left to discuss the fact that they’d be staying home tomorrow with him.

When she was done, Carter walked back into the living room and went to join Daniel by the videos.  “What are you in the mood for, Daniel?” she asked.

“Explosions,” he said.  “Good guys triumphing over evil against the odds.  Semi-mindless violence.”

She nodded thoughtfully.  “All right, how about this?”  She pulled something Jack couldn’t see off the shelf, and Daniel shrugged.

“I’ve never seen it,” he said.

Carter stared at him for a long moment.  “You’ve never seen _Die Hard_?”

“He has the most abysmal holes in his pop culture that I’ve ever seen, Carter,” Jack said.  “But, as it happens, it’s been a while since I’ve seen _Die Hard_ , so drop it in.  I’ve got the other two movies, too, so we could watch them all.”

“Tonight?” Carter asked.

“Well, since I’m probably not going to work tomorrow,” Daniel said, glancing at Jack for confirmation.  Jack shrugged and nodded.  “We could theoretically stay up all night.”

Carter looked thoughtful.  “I could go in late tomorrow,” she said, a slow smile spreading across her face.  “Let’s have a _Die Hard_ film festival!”

“I would be amenable to that idea,” Teal’c said.

Jack shook his head, looking despairingly up at the Jaffa as he came down the steps.  “Couldn’t you just say ‘that works for me’?” he asked.

Teal’c raised an eyebrow and paused in his descent.  “Is that not what I just said, O’Neill?”

“Well, yes, but like six people know that!”

Daniel let out a snort of derision.  At least Jack thought it was derision.  “Sit down, Colonel O’Neill, and stop trying to convince the rest of us that you have the IQ of a snail,” he said.  He sat down on the sofa and, kicking off his loafers, put his feet up on the coffee table, giving Jack a defiant glare.

Jack thumped down beside him, pulled his own sneakers off and put his feet up, too.  “So, Carter, got the movie ready yet?”

“It’s in,” she said, sitting down.  “And the pizzas should be here in about thirty minutes.”

“Great, then we’re all set for an evening of . . . bonding,” Jack said, narrowly avoiding putting the word ‘male’ into the sentence.

“Yes, sir,” Carter said, a smothered laugh in her voice.

Teal’c sat down, his back very straight.  “It was my understanding that male bonding consisted of beer, cheetos and poker.”

“You’ve been hanging out with Siler after hours, haven’t you?” Jack said.

“Indeed.  Is this not the case?”

“Well, you can substitute football or hockey for the poker.  Or violent movies.”

Teal’c blinked.  “So if you have violent movies, you do not need poker?”

“Right,” Jack replied.  “And any food that’s not good for you is great.  But the beer is part of the ritual.”  Daniel’s eyebrows raised, and he seemed to be having some trouble controlling his lips.  They kept twitching.

“I see,” Teal’c said.  “And how does the presence of a woman affect the bonding ritual?”

Jack stared for a moment, then shifted uncomfortably, not looking at Carter.  “Well, we don’t tell raunchy stories about women, for one.”

“Don’t mind me,” Carter said with edged innocence.  Jack gulped.  This was definitely treading on dangerous ground here.

“Actually, anthropologically speaking, while men have a bad reputation for lewd and lascivious behavior when they’re alone, when it comes to actually partaking in such behavior, women are far worse.”

“Indeed?” Teal’c asked, knitting his eyebrows.  “I would not have thought so.”

“Oh yeah!” Carter said in a satisfied tone of voice.  “When we really got going, we’d send you boys running for the hills.”

“I was incapacitated,” Daniel said in a frustrated voice.  “I couldn’t get away.”

“What?” Jack exclaimed.

Daniel turned to him, dismay writ large over his face.  “You would not believe the things she and Janet were saying to each other!”

Jack was astounded.  Jack was hurt.  Jack was . . . curious.  “And you didn’t _tell_ me?”

Daniel shook his head.  “I really don’t think you wanted to hear about --”

“Daniel!” Carter said suddenly, sitting up sharply and starting at him in consternation.

“Oops.”  He blinked.  “And I was threatened with horse pills and really large needles if I told anyone.  They thought I was asleep.”

“Oh, come on, Daniel!” Jack said.  “Tell!”

Thumping back against the sofa, Daniel crossed his arms obstinately.  “No way.  Janet’s scarier than you are, any day.”

“Indeed,” Teal’c said.  Jack turned to him in annoyance.  That word wasn’t supposed to have quite as many meanings as the Jaffa gave it, he could swear.

“How about we watch the movie,” Carter said.

“An excellent suggestion,” Daniel replied.  “I want some explosions and serious bad guy beating.”

Apart from a pause for Carter to get the pizzas and occasional pauses for bathroom breaks, they watched all three movies straight through.  By that time, Jack had had about enough of Bruce Willis looking heroic, and Carter had fallen asleep.  Teal’c was watching with the same intent curiosity with which he viewed nearly everything.  Daniel looked like he was ready to go to sleep, and Jack wondered suddenly if that was the purpose of this exercise for him.  Getting tired enough to go to sleep without difficulty.

If so, he was all for it.  He could probably go a couple more hours, but with Teal’c here, he didn’t have to.  He gave Teal’c a look, and the Jaffa nodded infinitesimally.  Daniel was too out of it to notice, or so Jack thought

“What, is Teal’c on ‘Daniel watch’ tonight?” he asked, letting out a huge yawn.

“I am,” Teal’c said.  “But do not let it trouble you, DanielJackson.  It is not lack of trust, merely concern.”

“You going to sit in the room with me, or stay down here?” Daniel asked, standing up.

“I planned to stay in the room with you,” Teal’c said.

“Then come on up.”  Daniel stretched then started walking towards the stairs.  “Maybe this way, Jack won’t have to wake up if I start having bad dreams.”

They went off upstairs.  Privately, Jack doubted that he wouldn’t wake up even with Teal’c there, but he didn’t say anything.  Instead, as they left, he went over to Carter.  She had her knees pulled up to her chest and was curled up like a child on the chair, her head pillowed on her arm.  “Carter!” he hissed, then tapped her shoulder lightly.

She sat up, blinking blearily.  “What?”

“You’re welcome to stay the night, but you might want to consider the couch as a better alternative to the chair.  Or I could take the couch and you could take my bed.”

“No, sir,” she said, still half-asleep.  “I’ll take the couch.  You’re old.”

Out of the mouths of sleeping majors came truths aging colonels didn’t want to hear.  “Fine.  Let me get you some blankets.”

He went upstairs, grabbed some bedding out of the hall closet and came downstairs to find her still curled up in the chair.  He made her a bed on the sofa and got her up and into it.  Then he went up to bed himself, glancing in on Daniel.  Teal’c had a book and was reading by the bedside lamp as Jack had the night before.  The hand that wasn’t holding the book was gently stroking Daniel’s hair, as one might a child’s, to keep them asleep.  The Jaffa favored him with a grave nod, which Jack returned, then he went back to his reading.

Jack smiled and went to bed himself.  He’d only gotten five or so hours of sleep today, and he was ready for eight.  With Teal’c behaving very much in Daddy mode towards Daniel, he might actually get them.  He rolled over on his side and stilled his mind for sleep.


	88. Chapter 88

When he returned to work on Monday, Daniel was visibly depressed to those who knew him best.  Those who didn’t know him well didn’t see anything but calm confidence.  As the days passed without further breakdowns, though, he gradually regained his equilibrium.

Jack dropped in on him periodically during the week -- to steal candy -- and he seemed very much himself again.  Jack, too, found he was regaining his equilibrium.  He’d been keeping a lid on so much anger, but that seemed to be subsiding as Daniel’s condition improved.

He kept attending the hearings, though he had to travel a bit further than he’d had to before.  Hammond had gotten Grady and Phillips moved out of the mountain, but he was there the Thursday of the week after Daniel’s explosion when Grady’s sentence was pronounced.  Hammond sat beside him in the audience.  The general hadn’t been able to attend all the hearings due to the press of work, but since Jack was going anyway, he had deputized him to be his representative.  They waited for the tribunal to deliver its verdict while Grady sat in his chair at the defense table.  The major listened stolidly as General Bassett, the presiding officer of the tribunal began to speak.

“I don’t believe words can adequately express the repugnance with which the court viewed the evidence in this case.”  He gazed solemnly at the defendant.  “Major Grady, despite the fact that you acknowledged your victim’s unwillingness early on in the proceedings, you have based your defense on your belief that the victim actually wanted the abuse you gave him.  We have heard your version of the events, we have heard the victim’s version of the events, and we have seen the video recordings you and your accomplice made during the events.  There is no doubt that by every law of this nation and by every regulation of the United States Air Force you are guilty of kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, assault, battery, attempted extortion, rape, rape with a foreign object, grand theft auto, conspiracy, attempted murder . . . the list just goes on. and includes a number of national security violations.”

“I didn’t try to kill him!” Grady exclaimed despite his lawyer’s attempt to quiet him.

“You are as responsible for Mr. Phillips’ actions as he is for yours, Major Grady.  And not only did you attack the man, you made those video recordings and have already dispersed them to hundreds of people for a profit.”  Bassett shook his head and glanced at his fellow judges.  “That you did all of this to anyone is appalling, but what we find even more heinous is that you attacked a civilian consultant attached to this base, a man whom it was your sworn duty to protect at all costs.  A man whom you should have treated with the utmost respect and esteem.  With callous disregard for his feelings and physical welfare, you repeatedly assaulted him sexually.  You brought another person into the room and allowed him to endanger Dr. Jackson’s life.  That you stopped him is the only mitigating factor we can find, and it may have been motivated more out of a desire to avoid more severe punishment than out of any concern for Dr. Jackson.”

“I would never have hurt a hair on Daniel’s head!” Grady shouted, jumping to his feet.

“Be seated!” the Bassett thundered, and the major sank down to the chair with his lawyer tugging him down.  “The point you seem to have missed is that you _did_ harm Dr. Jackson.”  The man pursed his lips.  “We find you guilty on all charges.  You are stripped of your rank.  You will serve a term of not less than the length of your natural life in a secure facility where your clearance cannot be compromised.”

There was silence, then Grady spoke in humbler tones than he had used previously.  “May I make a request?”

The three officers looked at one another.  “We will hear your request,” Bassett said after a moment.

“Can I at least speak to Daniel one more time, try to explain to him, to make him understand?”

Jack felt a cold fury roll over him.  If they even thought about granting that request, he would go up and reeducate all three of them before he started on Grady.  Fortunately for his career, the judges seemed to be almost as angry as he was.

“I -- what --”  General Bassett looked apoplectic.  “Request denied.  Get him out of here!” he ordered the sergeants who were acting as jailers.  Both men moved forward immediately, clapping cuffs on him.

He struggled against the restraints and their firmly pulling hands.  “You don’t understand!  I love him!  We’re meant for each other.  I have to tell him -- I have to make him understand!  I love --”

At that point the door closed and Jack was very glad that the hearings were no longer being held at the SGC so Grady wouldn’t have the opportunity to blare his supposed feelings to the rest of the base.  It was bad enough that he had said it in front of those who’d attended the court.

Beside him, Hammond muttered softly, “He’s utterly insane.”

“Yeah,” Jack said, “but don’t say that too loudly.  They might decide to be lenient.”

They stopped speaking at that moment because the presiding officer came towards them.  “General Bassett,” Hammond said.  “Have you met Colonel Jack O’Neill?”

“Have not had the pleasure,” Bassett said, holding out his hand.  “I think you handled this whole situation extremely well.  How is Dr. Jackson?”

“As well as can be expected, sir,” Jack said.  “It’s taking some time for him to deal with everything, but he’s managing.”

“I’m glad to hear it, colonel,” Bassett said.  “He maintained a cool head throughout his ordeal, which is impressive in its own right.  I think few soldiers would have done as well.”

“Dr. Jackson is an impressive man,” Hammond said, nodding.  “Which is why he’s on SG-1.”

“How soon will that unit be returning to field work?” Bassett asked.

“That depends on Dr. Jackson’s recovery.  In fact, some touchy missions have been placed on the back burner until Dr. Jackson can attend to them.  We’ve already had to send him out once to put out a brush fire since the attack.  I don’t want to risk putting too much stress on him.”

“Civilians with his training and the temperament to succeed in a front line unit don’t come along every decade,” Bassett said, smiling.  He turned to Jack.  “You can assure Dr. Jackson that Mr. Nathaniel Grady will not trouble him again.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Now we just have to deal with Phillips.”

“Hang ‘em high,” Jack muttered, and both generals sighed.

“I wish we could,” Bassett said.  “If you gentlemen will excuse me . . .”  They nodded and Bassett headed towards the judges’ table again.  Jack and Hammond took their seats and sat through much the same event.  The only difference was that Glen didn’t try to defend himself.  He’d had it pretty well rammed home to him that suggesting specific acts to a rapist in the process of committing rape counts in the law as participation, and he hadn’t tried to deny attempting to kill Daniel since that recording had been shown to him.  Instead he voiced the same tired complaints of brutality by his jailers.  Since they’d documented everything, and most of it was also on video tape, Bassett gave him short shrift and sentenced him to life in prison as well.

He went out without a struggle, looking sour and put upon.

Hammond and Jack went back to the base together in Hammond’s car, and after a while Hammond asked, “So, will your team be satisfied with this?”

“Hell no,” Jack replied instantly.  “I mean, Daniel, probably yes.  Teal’c wanted their nuts cut off before their throats were slit.  I don’t know exactly what Carter wanted, and I don’t think I want to know because she always gets that scary look in her eye when their names come up.”

“And you?”  Jack shrugged.  “Colonel?”

“Do I have to answer that?” Jack asked.

“No, Jack,” Hammond replied.

They traveled the rest of the way in silence as Jack tried not to think about what he’d like to have happen to those bastards.  In the kind of prison they were going to, it wouldn’t happen, but he wanted, badly, for them to know what it was like to be helpless at the mercy of someone who didn’t care for anything beyond his own pleasure.  He wanted them to be hurt, bruised and bloody, and then he wanted them to be put down like the mad dogs they were.

Somehow, he didn’t want to share that thought with Hammond.  “Are you satisfied, sir?” Jack asked.

Hammond was silent for so long that Jack didn’t think he was going to answer.  Finally, he pulled over by a park and cleared his throat.  “Heartbroken,” he said.  “I get these lists of men and women’s names together with files of their accomplishments.  I choose the best of that lot and interview them, have them tested by psychiatrists, and then I choose the best again.  I remember Grady.  He and three other men had reached the same point and I chose him.  He seemed to have ‘the right stuff,’ so to speak.”

“If it’s not my fault, general, then it isn’t yours either.”

Hammond shook his head.  “A man I picked out of a total of twenty or so candidates kidnapped and assaulted one of the kindest, gentlest men I know, and then claimed it was his fault.  Out of a field of candidates, I chose the sociopath.”  He pursed his lips.  “It’s a little disheartening.”

“Yeah, but you also picked me,” Jack said.

“No, I didn’t,” Hammond replied.  “West picked you, and not for the best of reasons.”

Jack sighed.  “No, I was cannon fodder.  But you let me stay.  And you let Daniel stay, and look how well . . .”  Jack trailed off when Hammond turned haunted eyes towards him.

“Dr. Jackson, while attached to my command, has been raped three times, killed multiple times, injured many times.  His wife was killed at the hands of one of his own teammates, his closest friend and commanding officer has been ordered to lie to him . . . the list goes on,” he said finally, in a parody of General Bassett’s words about Grady’s crimes.  Whether the parallel was conscious or unconscious, Jack wasn’t sure.

“Daniel chose this, general,” Jack said.  “And he would choose it again, if given the option.”

“Are you sure of that, colonel?”

Jack sighed and thought for a moment.  “You should know, he considered leaving, during the NID sting operation.”

“What?!”  Hammond looked stunned.

“He considered leaving the SGC,” Jack said, “but he didn’t, sir.  He stayed.  He wants to be here.  Don’t beat yourself up so much about this, sir.  Sociopaths are impossible to spot because they’re so good at camouflage.”

“I know that, but it doesn’t help much.”  Hammond shook his head, looking worried.  “I knew Dr. Jackson was unhappy while you were gone, but I didn’t realize it had gotten that far.  I wanted to talk to him, but I didn’t dare, not while the operation was going on.”

“Daniel has a way of wangling the truth out of you,” Jack agreed.  “Which is why I gave him such a low blow, to get him the hell out of my house before I spilled the beans or he guessed.”  Jack sighed.  “And even knowing it was necessary doesn’t make me feel any better about having done it.”

“Our jobs are hell on people with consciences.”

Jack nodded.  “But who wants someone without a conscience running something like the Stargate Command?”

“That’s the truth.”  Hammond started the car again and they returned to the base.


	89. Chapter 89

Daniel looked up as Hammond and Jack came in.  Tony was sitting at his computer, transcribing notes.  He’d come in here because he’d been having to ask a lot of questions, his grasp of Daniel’s chicken scratch handwriting not yet being perfect.  Both men looked serious and Daniel felt his gut tense slightly.  He stood up.

“What’s up?” he asked uneasily.

“We just came from the hearings,” Jack said.  “Both men are going to jail for the rest of their lives.”

Daniel blinked slowly in surprise.  “That seems pretty stringent.  I thought rape typically gets considerably more lenient sentences.”

Hammond looked startled.  “They were found guilty of a number of offenses . . . rape was only one among many.”

“All right, so then raping me doesn’t merit life in prison.”  He wasn’t sure if that was good or not.

Jack shrugged.  “Actually, I thought it merited execution, but they didn’t ask me.”

Hammond nodded.  “I feel much the same way, but they didn’t ask me either.”

Daniel was looking back and forth between them, trying to decide what to believe when Jack came over and put a hand on his shoulder.  “The guy in charge of the court martial asked me to assure you that you never have to worry about Grady again.”

Letting out a long, shuddering sigh, Daniel shook his head.  “Grady didn’t say anything about . . . he didn’t make any references to . . . to me, did he?”  Jack and the general exchanged looks, and Daniel grimaced irritably.  “I can just request the transcripts,” he said.

Jack scowled.  “You would, wouldn’t you?”  Daniel nodded.  “Yes, he did,” Jack said after a moment, and his hand on Daniel’s shoulder tightened.  “He asked if he could speak with you before he was sent to prison.”

“Hell no!” Daniel said, his stomach twisting.  “I don’t ever want to --”

“The judge was livid, and he denied the request.”

Daniel nodded, biting his lip.  “Did he say anything else?  I mean, he didn’t say . . . he didn’t say anything stupid, did he?”

Hammond came forward.  “He didn’t have anything left to lose at that point, son,” he said gently.  “He told the court he loves you, and that you two were ‘meant for each other.’”

Daniel closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around his chest.  “Great.  Just what I wanted to have in a court transcript.”

He felt Hammond’s hand on his arm.  “Dr. Jackson -- Daniel, it doesn’t reflect on you.  Everyone there recognized his warped thinking for what it is.  You’re the arbitrary object of a madman’s obsession, which isn’t an easy position to be in, but Grady will be safely locked away.”

Object of a madman’s obsession.  Daniel shivered at the thought.

Jack squeezed Daniel’s shoulder again.  “He won’t be coming after you again, and he won’t be able to hurt anyone else, not where he’s going.  They watch those bastards twenty-four/seven.”

Daniel managed a faint smile.  He was glad to know that Grady was going to some kind of high security prison, but they couldn’t stop him thinking about Daniel.  The notion of him out there, still fantasizing about Daniel and Daniel’s body was disturbing.

“What is it, Daniel?” Jack asked.

“Nothing,” he said looking down.

Jack gave his shoulder a light shake and he looked up.  “It’s not nothing,” Jack said.

Glancing over at Hammond, Daniel shrugged.  “There’s nothing that can be done,” he replied.  “It’s just something that bugs me that I have to learn to deal with on my own.”

Jack pursed his lips and Daniel could tell he wasn’t done, but that he was going to let it drop for now.  Hammond, however, seemed perturbed.  “Dr. Jackson, you don’t have to deal with anything on your own.  We’re here to help you, truly.”

Daniel took a step back, breaking contact with both of them, and slipped back up onto his stool.  “It’s not that, sir,” he said.  “It’s . . . after all’s said and done, certain problems will be my own, and nobody can help me deal with them.  I think this is one of those.”  He shrugged again and made eye contact with Jack, hoping he would understand.  “Ultimately, I’ll have to face the night alone again, and cope.”

“Ultimately,” Jack agreed.  “But that’s not today.  And we’ve got plenty we can do to help fortify you for that point in time.”  He shook his head.  “Daniel, don’t close us out just yet.”

“I’m not closing you out, Jack.  I’m just -- I don’t want to talk about it right now, okay?”

“Sure,” Jack said.  He clapped his hands together in a quicksilver change of mood that Daniel trusted about as far as he could throw the colonel.  “So, have you got any candy left?”

“No, you pretty much cleaned me out yesterday,” Daniel said, smiling more genuinely, now that they weren’t directly addressing Grady.  “But I do have some cookies that someone in the kitchen brought up for me.”

Jack pounced on them with alacrity, as much to amuse him as anything else, Daniel suspected.  “Chocolate chip, gotta love that!”

Daniel grinned, then glanced at Hammond who was still gazing at him with concern.  “Son, I --”  He broke off, shaking his head as if not sure what to say.

“Sir, knowing that Grady is out of the way helps enormously,” Daniel said.  “I can’t tell you how much.”  He looked down at his translation.  “Have we turned up any more of his victims?”

“One or two,” Jack said off-handedly.  “And one fellow who can’t figure out what he did wrong.  Evidently Grady read one man right.”

“No women?”

“No women,” Hammond affirmed.

“How did the victims react?”

“One of them is still a serving military officer,” Jack said.  “He was terrified that we were going to cashier him or put it in his records, but we didn’t see any reason to ruin his life any further.  We just told him that Grady had been arrested for similar behavior elsewhere and was being locked up.  Then we offered confidential counseling, which offer he took with surprising alacrity.”

Daniel wet his lips, striving to control the visceral anger that surged through him.  It wasn’t fair.  A serving military officer had a hell of a lot to lose if something like that came out about him, but the fact remained that if he’d come forward, Grady would never have gotten to Daniel.  Willing that monstrously unreasonable reaction under control, Daniel reminded himself that all that mattered was that Grady was now in a place where he could harm no one else.

“I’m glad he’s getting help, then,” Daniel said after a moment because they were both looking at him oddly, like he’d been silent too long.

Jack nodded.  “It can’t have been easy to cope with.  At least one of the others appears to have been a prostitute who has since gone straight.  Apparently Grady scared him straight.”

* * *

That seemed to hit Daniel pretty hard.  The archeologist walked over to his sofa and sat down on it, looking stunned.  “Wow.  Well, that’s actually good, I guess.  Safer.  What’s he doing?”

“He’s in community college and working at a Wendy’s.”  Jack gave him a dry look.  “He’s studying psychology and criminal science.”

Daniel grinned.  “That sounds productive.”

Jack shrugged and sat down.  “He wants to be a profiler, he says.  For the FBI.”  Internally, Jack debated telling him more.  He’d gone along on that meeting, and it had been remarkably disturbing seeing that shock of long hair, indeterminate in color between dark blond and light brown, the blue eyes, the slim build, all in a room filled with books.

When they’d arrived, the boy, Greg Beyer, had let them in with some trepidation, and Jack wondered if he knew that Grady was Air Force and was reacting to their uniforms.  Then they mentioned Grady and he went stiff all over.  Carter took the lead then, assuring him that Grady was under lock and key and going to prison for what he’d done to another man, and the boy had relaxed with relief.

Then Greg stiffened again and said, “Oh God, was it that Daniel he was always on about?”

Carter picked up smoothly when Jack discovered he was incapable of speech.  “I’m sorry, but we can’t tell you the names of his other victims.  We will guard your privacy just as zealously.”

“Right.  It’s just, man, that guy was weird.  The first time he picked me up I thought it was kind of strange that he wanted to call me that, but . . .”  The boy shuddered.  “He was really creepy.  He kept following me, even when I changed neighborhoods.  He even grabbed me out of my flop once and kept me in his basement for like four or five days.  He called me Daniel the whole time I was there, and he got really freaky.”  He was clenching and unclenching his fists, and Jack sympathized with him.  “He told me he made videos of it all, and I’ve actually seen one of them since, which about sent me into orbit.  I mean, how do you tell someone that the porn on his shelf is . . . is you getting . . .”  He swallowed.  “I don’t know why I’m telling you guys this.  Sorry.”

“No,” Carter said.  “It’s fine.  We understand better than you know.”  She glanced at Jack who shrugged.  “His last victim was a friend of ours, so we know what he was like.”  Greg nodded, looking thoughtful.  “Now, we’d like to offer you some counseling, completely confidential and free of charge.”

The boy’s brows knit together.  “What, are you going around and finding all of this guy’s leftovers and trying to help fix them?”

“Yes,” Carter said.  “Though I’m not sure I’d call them leftovers.”

Greg shuddered.  “I had to get off the streets to avoid him, and even then I was scared he’d find me for months.  I tried to go to the police once, but they wouldn’t even take my statement.  Said I was just trying to make trouble, told me to get out.”  He shook his head.  “Tell your friend I tried to get him stopped, but no one would listen.”

“I’ll tell him,” Jack had said, then listened to Sam explain that Grady was going to be in prison till he died because the military held its members to a higher standard.

Looking at Daniel now, he said, “The young man asked me to tell my friend who was attacked that he’d tried to stop Grady, but because of his record the police wouldn’t listen to him.”

“Because he was a prostitute?”

“Yes,” Jack said.

“How old is he?”

“About nineteen now.  He was . . . it was a year ago.”

Daniel looked deeply disturbed.  “He was eighteen?  Or was he seventeen?  God, Jack, surely there’s something we can do for him.”

Jack did his best to look innocent.  “Actually, I sort of offered him a job.”

“You did what?” Hammond asked, sounding startled.

Jack was pleased to see that Daniel looked happy with him.  “Well, I figure if he’s strong enough to survive what Grady did to him, report it, cope with being ignored and go on to go back to school, pay his way by working at Wendy’s _and_ get as good grades as he’s getting . . .”  Jack looked over at Daniel.  “He did go to the police.  We went and checked.”

“Did you speak firmly to the police?” Hammond asked.

Jack swallowed a bit nervously and shrugged, pursing his lips.  “Well, actually, sir, you may get a call from a Superintendent Pritchard.  Things got a little heated.”

“Just tell me there was no punching involved.”

“No sir,” Jack said.  “Just some very strong words.  And sentences.  A few expletives might have gotten involved.”

“Colonel!”

“I didn’t touch anyone, sir,” Jack said defensively.  “But if those idiots had listened to that kid a year ago, Daniel wouldn’t have had to deal with this now.”

“A year ago,” Daniel said.  “He wasn’t thinking of me then, was he?” he asked.

Jack took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to answer that one, and the suddenly alarmed expression on Daniel’s face made him feel like he was hitting a puppy.  He glanced up at Hammond who had drawn up a straight backed chair to sit with them.  Tony had slipped out at some point, Jack hadn’t noticed when.  He looked back at Daniel.  “I’m afraid . . . he used to call some of the others ‘Daniel,’” he said.  He watched Daniel withdraw into himself, and then he reached out and caught his arms.  “Don’t.  It’s not your fault that Grady is an obsessive nutcase.”

“Certainly not,” Hammond said.

“I just . . . he’s been thinking about me sexually for a year?  For more than a year?”  He shivered, and his eyes looked lost.  “I’ve been on missions with that man.  I was alone with him for two days on P8G-809.  Was that was he was thinking about the whole time?”

Jack didn’t have an answer.  There wasn’t a good answer.

“We’ll never know,” Hammond said, “but at this point in time all you can do is move forward.”

Some of the fire came back into Daniel’s eyes and he smiled at the general.  “Right.  And I’ll be damned if I’ll let a twisted bastard like Grady stop me.”

“That’s the spirit,” Jack said.  Daniel raised an eyebrow and his expression warned Jack that he was alive to any hint of condescension.  “I’m serious, Daniel.  That’s the healthiest attitude to take.”

He nodded, looking a little abashed.  “So, is this guy going to come work here?”

Jack shrugged.  “I left him my card, but he hasn’t called yet.”

“Maybe I should talk to him,” Daniel suggested.

Hammond looked speechless, and Jack felt an outpouring of exasperated warmth for this man whose reaction to overwhelming trauma was to try and help someone else.  “I don’t know if that will be necessary, Daniel.”

“It might be good if he knew that not everyone here is like Grady,” Daniel pointed out.  “I’m assuming you told him that this is where Grady worked.”

“Yes, but I mentioned that he’d been diagnosed as a sociopath, and they’re notoriously hard to spot until they go too far.”

“But he might need to meet someone who’s more normal, someone non-military.”  Jack wondered how best to say that it might not be all that helpful to meet the man he’d been standing in for.  Daniel’s eyes went shadowed.  “But maybe it shouldn’t be me.  Not if Grady called him . . . it should be someone though.  Maybe Robert.”  Daniel shook his head before Jack could respond.  “No, Robert can be awfully condescending, and if the kid’s as young as you say . . . Robert might think . . . I mean, once he’s hired it would be no problem, but . . . Balinsky!”  The name was said with all the fervor of a sudden discovery in science.  “Young looking, friendly, not condescending, he’s perfect.  Send Balinsky.”  Abruptly he reached toward the phone.  “No, I’ll send Balinsky.”

Jack put a hand on his arm.  “If it’s necessary.  He could call me tomorrow.”

Daniel got a very serious look on his face.  “If he doesn’t call by the end of the week, we’re sending Balinsky.  We owe this kid, Jack.”

Hammond nodded.  “The SGC certainly has a moral responsibility to see that Grady’s crimes are righted insofar as it is possible,” he said, laying a certain emphasis on the SGC as a whole rather than any one person in particular.

Daniel’s lips took on a stubborn line that Jack knew all too well.  He wasn’t going to argue with the general, but if Jack knew Daniel, he was taking it very much to heart that this young man had been attacked in his stead, and nothing any of them could say would change his mind.

And there was no doubt in Jack’s mind, thinking back on Beyer’s looks and even his voice, that Grady had seized on him because he so strongly resembled Daniel.  There were significant differences in face shape, but if Grady was as far gone as he seemed to be, that might not matter much.  All he needed was a body that wasn’t too far off the right parameters that he could imagine Daniel’s face onto.

“I should get back to work,” Daniel said.  “I’ve got a short stack of translations.  It might be nice to find out what it’s like to be caught up.  It might last all of ten minutes, but still . . .”

Hammond took the hint, forcing Jack to do likewise.  He snagged a cookie, reasoning that he could chat with Daniel on a number of these topics this evening at home.  “Have fun, Daniel.”


	90. Epilogue

Daniel walked into the gate room, all geared up and ready to go offworld.  More than ready.  It had been six weeks since the rescue mission to Siktar, six weeks since Grady, just over three months since Rigar.  He was back living in his own apartment, though he found it startlingly lonely, so he went over to Jack’s house for dinner and movies frequently.

Life was back to normal, for the most part, especially now that he was actually going on an offworld mission.  Jack was standing, waiting, and Teal’c and Sam were a little ways off.  She was helping him get a strap secured on his back.  They were all eager to be on their way.  He felt a little guilty for the length of time it had taken him to get cleared again.

Jack looked up and saw him, giving him a nod of greeting.  Daniel walked over to him.  “You ready to go?” Jack asked as he approached.

“More than,” Daniel replied fervently.  Too many reasons went into his tone to express in the time they had before the gate opened, and he wouldn’t want to discuss most of it in such a public forum, so he took refuge in the obvious.  “If anything’s happened to that cache . . .”

Jack grinned.  “I know, I’ll be eating dinner on my own for the next year.”

Daniel gave him a dry look, then grinned, too pleased to be going back out to stay annoyed long.  “So, how is Harry’s intern working out?”

“Greg?  He’s doing great,” Jack replied.  “And Hammond’s pulled a few strings to get him a full ride at the university of his choice when he gets that far.”

“That’s great!” Daniel said, grinning even more broadly.  He’d been a little nervous the first time he’d run into the kid after he’d started working on base, but there had only been a few moments of awkwardness.  They hadn’t talked about their shared experiences, but Harry had been hinting that a bit of group therapy might be in order.

Abruptly, the gate began to move, one chevron after the next activating.  He felt a rush of elation curiously mixed with fear . . . but he’d been prepared for that.  Harry had warned him that his first non-emergency trip through the stargate might be a little nerve-wracking.  She was definitely not wrong.  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, allowing the excitement of potential discovery to overwhelm the less positive emotions.

With a massive whoosh of energy, the event horizon blasted into existence, then hung shimmering within the vast circle of naquadah.  An incredible wealth of possibilities lay beyond that glimmer of light and energy, both good and bad.  Daniel was glad he hadn’t let someone as small as Grady or as twisted as Rigar stop him from exploring them.

“We’re on,” Jack said, starting forward.  Daniel, grinning from ear to ear, walked beside him up to the gate and beyond.


End file.
